Acquiring E-books – Does (Should) Workflow Play a Role?

The methods in which e-books can be purchased vary greatly compared to printbooks. In the past, a print book was purchased either as an individual title (firmorder) or through an approval plan. Once the books were received, there was littledeviation in how the items were processed – purchase orders were created, books wereprocessed, invoices were input and paid. However, with e-books, the work is more complexand there are a many ways to purchase e-books – firm order, Demand (or Patron) DrivenAcquisiton (DDA), Evidence Based Acquisition (EBA), yearly front-file purchases,back-file purchases, or subscription to e-book packages. Each of the methods involves aworkflow that goes from easy to somewhat complex. This begs the question of whether theacquisitions workflow can or should influence how e-books are purchased.