Ebook Central
Welcome to the Ebook Central Forum. You are invited to help us improve LibCentral by posting, commenting and voting on ideas.
All we require is your name and a professional (work) email address then you are ready to submit, review and vote. Our Ebook Central Forum is open for all Ebook Central users.
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We will read every post, although we may not be able to respond to every idea or comment submitted. This information will provide our development team with valuable input on priorities for Ebook Central improvements.
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Newer edition available flag
There should be a newer edition available flag to prevent people ordering older edition eBooks when newer editions are available. Why are the older edtions there anyway.
7 votes -
To allow return of book earlier after download, so that the book can be available for other users.
Each ebook will have a specific number of concurrent user access. However, if a user downloads a book, this is tied to a fixed number of days, before the book can be free-up for other users to access. The function should allow users to return the book earlier, so that others can also access the eBook earlier.
13 votes -
Ability to sign up for notification when an ebook is available again, especially for one user titles.
One user ebooks should allow users to sign up for notification when an ebook is available again on the platform. Useful tool especially for the academic institution that uses the text in the curriculum as recommended reading where we know demand is high.
46 votesThanks to our customers for both the ideas and all the votes! We are currently reviewing this so please stay tuned to the idea exchange for updates and keep voting! Best, Rayna Stowe
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Account Creation Requirements
Require patrons use a root email address selected by the institution (example: @[institution].edu), and verify the legitimacy of that address before creating account (patrons receive email with link to complete the setup process).
3 votes -
Link editions/ Pearson versions
We have had turnaways from a 2nd edition of a book where we own the 3rd edition and have an issue now with additional copies of Pearson books having different URLs due to the removal of print/copy by Pearson. It would be very helpful if you could provide a link between editions /versions along the lines of Amazon's 'There is a newer edition' link.
4 votes -
DDA - Date Removed
It would be nice to have a "date removed" field for DDA titles. As titles are removed between file loads, patrons occasionally come across a record that has been removed from ProQuest but not from the catalog yet because the monthly file has not been created yet. If a title had a note of when it was removed from DDA, that would help clear up these problems. It would be similar to the "date added" field, but would be "date removed from DDA".
2 votes -
Discovery of resources - browse subjects
We have a strong curriculum of Arts and Performing Arts, particularly Dance, at our institution. Could Performing Arts - and Dance - be added to the 'Browse Subjects' page to make it easier for academics and students to engage with texts in those areas? There are already ones which have been created for Architecture and Fine Arts, which are very helpful.
2 votes -
Daily turnaway email option
It would be helpful to have the option to have a daily compilation of turnaways sent automatically. We don't always upgrade a licence on the first turnaway notification, and the inbox can fill very quickly. I also don't want to run a manual report every day
7 votes -
Expand available popular management/D&I books available to government libraries
Our customers are increasingly requesting electronic access to popular management (e.g., http://thetelosinstitute.com/library/) and diversity and inclusion (e.g., https://www.businessinsider.com/12-books-diversity-in-2020-every-leader-should-know-about-2020-1) books. Currently, our government library is unable to access many titles like these, but I understand that non-government libraries have access to a larger number of titles, due to publisher/EBC license agreements.
We would like to be able to provide access to these kinds of titles through EBC. Our alternative is to add another platform like Overdrive, which makes it difficult for our customers to find eBooks between different platforms.
3 votes -
Track ebook upgrade costs
If using a DDA deposit account and using this money for upgrades too, it would be useful to be able to track the cost of upgrades via the budget tracker or a separate upgrade tracker
1 vote -
Permalinks need to have the option to always include proxy info
Our faculty work sometimes from campus and sometimes from home and send permalinks to students who may be on or off campus. The permalinks will only consistently work if they are proxied all the time. Our faculty or students are not going to think to check the URL every time...mainly because every other vendor we use just allows us to turn on proxied version 100% of the time regardless of where they are when they are accessing the resource so they don't have to think about it.
4 votes -
Receive notifications for titles removed from the DDA pool outside of the biannual ebook process
We've had instances where faculty members ask if we have an ebook available for a class that they'll be teaching in a different semester. At the time we receive the question, we have access to it as we have activated it as part of our DDA pool. By the time the class comes, it has been removed by the publisher and we no longer have access.
We would like to receive notification of the titles that will be removed by the publisher outside of the biannual ebook removal process. By the time it hits the MARC removal list, we are…
1 vote -
Add a 'Recent additions' carousel along with the 'Recently viewed' one
We regularly purchase additional titles to our package and we would like to promote those to our patrons. We are a specialised library and it would be good to be able to highlight those titles that have been chosed specifically for our patrons. Other e-book platforms have such carousels in place.
2 votes -
Improve pricing transparency
Some publishers such as Elsevier or Springer multiply the base cost of the ebook. On LibCentral the price shown is not what we end up getting charged for in these cases. Could you calculate the actual cost of the ebook at the point of ordering? That way we can assess whether we want to purchase the ebook at that price or not. For example, we recently purchased one ebook for $57.51 but when the email confirmation came it was for $115.02 as Elsevier charges twice in that case.
1 vote -
By adding information about the licence model on the Detail page
Improve usability by adding information on the Detail page for books purchased under a NL model that the options “Download PDF Chapter” and “Download PDF” in ToC does not work unless you first Download the book (check-out). As I was told when asking about it, this information is available in Libcentral. However, endusers does not have access to Libcentral. I would also suggest that you change “Download Book” on the Detail page to “Download Book (check-out)”. As a librarian I understand what check-out means and so does teachers and researchers, but necessarily not new students with low library skills. Think…
1 vote -
Allow a field when ordering for a PO no., so that it appears on the invoice clearly. This is required by our Finance Department.
Currently having to use Fund Code field for the PO Number which is not ideal.
1 vote -
Including bib# on ebookcentral order confirmation email
It would be useful to cataloguers if the bib# was also on the order confirmation email. It should be easy enough to have it machine generated.
1 vote -
Alert on new titles
Is it possible to implement alerts on recently added titles according patron's search terms? Referring to my experience this could also help promote DDA. Thanks.
1 vote -
Do not send mediated alerts when there are no options for upgrade
Currently, Ebook Central will send a mediated alert via email when a user was unable to access a limited-concurrency title. This alert will be sent regardless if the ebook is available for upgrade or not.
My suggestion for enhancement is to offer an option to either 1) send the mediated request or 2) treat it as a turnaway when the title in question is not available for upgrade
2 votes -
1 vote
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