EBSCO’s Ebook Academic Collection trial
16 04 2012We have a trial to EBSCO’s Ebook Academic Collection trial until June 30, 2012.
This is a new product from EBSCO, comparable to the collection we have from ebrary. Like ebrary, there are over 70,000 titles (only about 51,000 for this trial), unlimited simultaneous users and downloads. Because this is a trial, we will not add the records to the catalog, but if we were to subscribe, they would be added.
We will be actively comparing this product with ebrary’s so please share your comments in the comments below or email me directly. In particular, I would like comments on ease of downloading, search capabilities, on-screen display, marking, saving and emailing capabilities, and any other feature you may consider important.
EBSCO’s product has very few university press titles compared to ebrary. I just did bunch of searches for major university presses and scholarly publishers. Here are the results:
Basic Books
EBSCO = 0
ebrary = 129
Cambridge University Press
EBSCO = 0
ebrary = 1891
Columbia University Press
EBSCO = 1
ebrary = 508
Cornell University Press
EBSCO = 0
ebrary = 296
Harvard University Press
EBSCO = 1
ebrary = 599
Indiana University Press
EBSCO = 802
ebrary = 534
Johns Hopkins University Press
EBSCO = 0
ebrary = 490
Oxford University Press
EBSCO = 1
ebrary = 3587
Princeton University Press
EBSCO = 1
ebrary = 621
Stanford University Press
EBSCO = 0
ebrary = 491
U of California Press
EBSCO = 2
ebrary = 917
U of Chicago Press
EBSCO = 3
ebrary = 1267
U of Michigan Press
EBSCO = 529
ebrary = 433
Yale University Press
EBSCO = 0
ebrary = 656
Thank you for doing this!
I don’t have a list of the publishers included in the package yet, but the trial contains a smaller sample of books than the full collection and not all publishers allow their books to be included in a trial. This might explain at least some of the disparity you found.
I received an email from Scott Wasinger from EBSCO confirming that indeed this trial does not include all ebooks that would be available via the full subscription.
Here are some number comparisons he provides: “Cambridge University Press – EBSCO 2,217, ebrary 1,891; Indiana University Press – EBSCO 901, ebrary 534; Columbia University Press – EBSCO 620, ebrary 508.”
Based on the title list spreadsheet that we just got from EBSCO, I have updated numbers that show a close match in coverage by publishers. There still aren’t any (or very, very few) from these university presses: Cornell, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Oxford, Stanford, University of California, University of Chicago, and Yale. It’s my understanding that EBSCO will soon be adding more publishers to the collection.
Basic Books
EBSCO = 60
ebrary = 129
Cambridge University Press
EBSCO = 2217
ebrary = 1891
Columbia University Press
EBSCO = 620
ebrary = 508
Cornell University Press
EBSCO = 0
ebrary = 296
Harvard University Press
EBSCO = 1
ebrary = 599
Indiana University Press
EBSCO = 901
ebrary = 534
Johns Hopkins University Press
EBSCO = 0
ebrary = 490
Oxford University Press
EBSCO = 1
ebrary = 3587
Princeton University Press
EBSCO = 537
ebrary = 621
Stanford University Press
EBSCO = 0
ebrary = 491
U of California Press
EBSCO = 2
ebrary = 917
U of Chicago Press
EBSCO = 3
ebrary = 1267
U of Michigan Press
EBSCO = 535
ebrary = 433
Yale University Press
EBSCO = 0
ebrary = 656