EBooks?

E-Books and the Music Library at IU are kind of at an interesting cross-roads.  At present, we generally don't order that many, unless they are specifically requested by a patron.  Why?  Because generally, you cannot make a quick copy and mark up an E-Book score, and generally that's what our patrons use the library to accomplish.

This, however, is not the trend in all music libraries.  When visiting Butler University, Sheri Stormes, the Performing Arts Librarian, explained, when asked, that she does tend to order books in E-Book format if they are available, simply because that seems to be the format that most Butler students are now utilizing in their research and in the classroom.  I should have asked her specifically about scores, but we were a tad short on time.

In this current internship, I have yet to firm order an E-Book, and am a tad curious as to how that would differ from firm ordering any other monographic title.  Would it immediately be added to the OPAC and usable?  (Obviously this would be a major plus if we did start purchasing E-Books.)  What would the MARC records look like? (That's the cataloger in me.)

For music research, I'll admit that I find physical books and scores more appealing if only because I can interact with the object to a greater extent than I could with my Kindle screen (although, I love my Kindle dearly).  But I am interested to see that if in the next five years or so another Acquisitions and Collection Development Intern will spend his/her time beefing up our E-Book collections.