Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to describe the collection development practices regarding e-books among librarians who manage French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish (Romance) materials. The authors aim to describe factors that influence acquisition of e-books for Romance language collections to confirm librarians’ perception that humanities researchers prefer print and library administrators’ attitudes toward e-books.

Design/methodology/approach

This study collected data using a mixed-method approach of a survey and focus groups.

Findings

This study confirms that user preference is the primary consideration of Romance librarians in selecting e-books. Contrary to librarians’ perceptions, this study found that humanities faculty and students are not averse to using e-books for specific purposes such as searching, targeted reading and course materials. While restrictions on lending e-books are a concern, Romance librarians are focused primarily on serving the needs of their core constituencies.

Research limitations/implications

The practice of adding call numbers to individual e-books varies among institutions. Individual e-book titles in large packages do not necessarily get added to the catalog, thus making it very difficult to compare e-book collections between institutions.

Originality/value

This study endeavors to unify the anecdotal narratives and factors that influence the acquisition of e-books by Romance librarians.

中文翻译：

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拉丁语言图书馆员对电子书收藏发展实践的评估

目的

本文的目的是描述管理法语，意大利语，葡萄牙语和西班牙语（浪漫）资料的馆员在电子书方面的馆藏开发实践。作者的目的是描述影响获取浪漫史语言电子书的因素，以确认图书馆员的看法，即人文研究人员更喜欢印刷和图书馆管理员对电子书的态度。

设计/方法/方法

这项研究使用调查和焦点小组的混合方法收集数据。

发现

这项研究证实，用户偏好是浪漫图书馆员在选择电子书时的主要考虑因素。与图书馆员的看法相反，这项研究发现人文科系和学生并不反对将电子书用于特定目的，例如搜索，针对性阅读和课程材料。尽管限制借阅电子书是一个问题，但浪漫的图书馆员主要专注于满足其核心选区的需求。

研究局限/意义

在各个机构中，向各个电子书添加电话号码的做法各不相同。大包装中的各个电子书标题不一定会被添加到目录中，因此很难比较各个机构之间的电子书馆藏。

创意/价值

这项研究致力于统一轶事叙述和影响浪漫史图书馆员获取电子书的因素。