We’ve pointed out in the past that more and more public libraries are beginning to offer electronic resources from academic publishers and dbase providers.
Today, the Kansas City Public Library is launching access to 3,200 full text ebooks from the Project Muse/UPCC for all KCPL cardholders.
From Today’s KCPL Announcement:
More than 3,200 digital editions of scholarly books on the humanities from the Project MUSE collection are now available to patrons of the Kansas City Public Library.
The electronic books were purchased through a grant from the Ewing Kauffman Book Fund, and can be accessed at the Library’s website.
In addition, individual electronic books may be located by using the search function of the Library’s online catalog.
“It’s a very valuable addition to our collection,” says collection development librarian Dennis Halbin. “You can read these books online. You can download an entire book a chapter at a time. With the electronic format it’s easy to get hold of and to look at from almost anywhere.”
The initial purchase centers on MUSE’s collection of books on history. As funds become available, Halbin says, the Library plans to pick up MUSE’s collections of electronic books on literature, politics, and philosophy.
See Also: Project Muse/UPCC (University Press Content Consortium) Participating Publishers
See Also: Project Muse for Public Libraries (Journals)
See Also: Public Libraries Providing Access to JSTOR Materials
Quick Comment from Gary Price, infoDOCKET Founder/Editor
We’re very happy to learn about the acquisition of UPCC ebook titles by the KCPL.
We strongly believe (and have told our friends at Project Muse this on multiple occasions ) that fairly priced collection(s) of “scholarly” books from the university press community could be something that the public library community would support.
Scholarly or academic (choose your term) books/ebooks published by university presses are often about topics that will appeal to public library users enjoy reading non-fiction. At the same time they can be very helpful when users are researching any number of topics.
Sadly, the words scholarly or academic can scare off people but if you browse the catalog of many university publishers you will likely find titles that could have a place in public library collections.
Kudos to the KCPL. We hope other public libraries join them.
About Gary Price
