An Account and Analysis of the Implementation of Various E‐Book Business Models at Queensland University of Technology, Australia

Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is a leading university based in the city of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia and is a selectively research intensive university with 2,500 higher degree research students and an overall student population of 45,000 students.

The transition from print to online resources is largely completed and the library now provides access to 450,000 print books, 1,000 print journals, 600,000 e‐books, 120,000 e‐journals and 100,000 online videos. The e‐book collection is now used three times as much as the print book collection.

This paper focuses on QUT Library’s e‐book strategy and the challenges of building and managing a rapidly growing collection of e‐books using a range of publishers, platforms, and business and financial models. The paper provides an account of QUT Library’s experiences in using patron‐driven acquisition (PDA) using e‐Book Library (EBL); the strategic procurement of publisher and subject collections by lease and outright purchase models, the more recent transition to evidence‐based selection (EBS) options provided by some publishers, and its piloting of e‐textbook models. The paper provides an in‐depth analysis of each of these business models at QUT, focusing on access verses collection development, usage, cost per use, and value for money.