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Abstract

This paper gives some background on e-books and UK library purchasing consortia, before discussing in detail an innovative tender for e-books undertaken for higher education in the UK.The main aims of the tender were to provide members with agreements that were innovative in terms of business models giving value for money; were flexible, offering those with differing requirements appropriate options; exploited the electronic medium in terms of granularity and multi-user access; focused on users’ needs rather than libraries’ requirements; and encouraged the addition of library-defined con- tent.The success of the tender demonstrated that libraries are not prepared to accept the restrictive and expensive business models, often based on hard-copy practice, which some aggregators seem to be forcing on us. In terms of content, it also showed libraries taking the lead in influencing what aggregators are making available.