Nudging the envelope : the hard road to mainstreaming UCD Library e-book provision

Results of a local survey in late 2008 show that e-books have not yet reached a tipping point at University College Dublin (UCD) Library, with only about a quarter of those surveyed saying that they have used any. There is therefore everything to play for in this developing area. We describe briefly the stages of e-book development at UCD Library, and then focus upon the main themes that have emerged and our experience in each case. These themes are: collection development and acquisition; resource discovery; statistics and promotion; then future challenges and plans. There is discussion of the real challenges that we have seen over the three years that we have had a specific focus on e-books, in terms of the inter-team nature of the enterprise, the rapid transition to new working methods, and the threat presented to future e-book developments by the current financial situation.