By Fredric Nachbaur and Michael Zeoli
A note of introduction from Fred Nachbaur: At the 2024 AUPresses Annual Meeting in Montréal, I surveyed book distribution and content delivery developments over the past 30 years as part of the “Understanding E-Book Distribution, Sales, and Usage” panel. Moderated by Catherine Cocks, Director of Syracuse University Press, the session also featured insights from Phillip Hearn, Senior Publisher Relations Manager of Project MUSE, and Erich van Rijn, Director at the University of California Press.
My thanks to Michael Zeoli of De Gruyter for generously providing the slides that accompanied my presentation, whose content is replicated below. He helped me better understand the evolution of how libraries acquire scholarly books and the impact the technological changes have had on academic publishing.
Of related interest: “Understanding E-book Distribution (And Why You Should Care)” by Nachbaur and Zeoli, Feeding the Elephant blog, October 2, 2024
Evolution of Book Distribution: 1990s to the Present
Pre-2000
- Print Wholesalers work with Library Vendors to distribute books to Academic Libraries.
1999-2006
- Print Wholesalers acquire Library Book Vendors to distribute to Academic Libraries.
- E-book Aggregators and Publisher Platforms emerge and distribute to Academic Libraries.
- Serials/Journals Vendors begin to go bankrupt, consolidating the market.
2007-2013
- Library Book Vendors and E-book Vendors form partnerships to reach Academic Libraries.
- Large Digital Content Companies acquire E-book Vendors to enter the library book market. They work with traditional Library Book Vendors and with Academic Libraries directly.
- E-book models disrupt traditional book sales.
2015
- Digital Content Companies acquire Library Book Vendors. Consolidation nearly complete?
2021
- Large Information Companies (think “Big Data”) consolidate.
Timeline
1994
- Amazon
1995
- eBay
1996
- YBP Library Services launches GOBI, the first online library acquisitions and collection development interface
1997
- Ebooks.com (Australia) and the California Digital Library (CDL)
- Netflix
1998
- 1999
- ebrary and NetLibrary
- Baker & Taylor acquires YBP (GOBI)
- Napster, an un-metered online use/access model
2001
- Safari (O’Reilly Publishing/Pearson)
- BiblioVault (University of Chicago Press)
2002
- SpringerLink and ABC-CLIO e-book platforms
- Faxon bankruptcy
2002-2005
- Google Books
- OCLC acquires NetLibrary (bankruptcy)
2003
- Oxford Scholarship Online (OSO)
2004
- EBL (started by Ebooks.com) creates PDA (DDA), the first technology-based alternative to traditional library collecting model
- Coutts MyiLibrary
- Google Scholar
- Elsevier launches Scopus
2005
- OhioLINK Electronic Book Center (EBC)
2006
- Ingram acquires Coutts Information Services and MyiLibrary
- Francisco Partners acquire Ex Libris
- Francisco Partners acquire Endeavor from Elsevier
2007
- Duke University Press e-books platform (ebrary)
- Amazon Kindle
2008
- HathiTrust (CIC, University of California libraries, Google)
- Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL)
- Scholars Portal platform (ebrary)
2009
- E-books integrated into traditional print approval plans
2010
- EBSCO, a large electronic information company, acquires NetLibrary, a new academic book company
- YBP Library Services (GOBI) acquires Blackwell North America
- Cambridge Books Online
- Wiley Online Library (replacing Interscience)
- Blockbuster Video bankruptcy
2011
- ProQuest, another large electronic information company, acquires ebrary, a new academic book company
- Project MUSE e-books (UPCC)
- Oxford UPSO launched
- Cambridge University Publishing Online launched
- Borders bankruptcy, Waterstones sold (close to bankruptcy)
2012
- JSTOR e-books, launched as an alternative to Project MUSE
- Knowledge Unlatched, an open access aggregator
- Safari (O’Reilly Publishing) acquires PubFactory
- Wiley and Cambridge University Press develop Evidence-Based Acquisitions (EBA) to improve Demand-Driven Acquisitions (DDA), a use-based, technology-driven model
2013
- ProQuest acquires EBL, shifts focus to DDA
- Blackwell UK withdraws from academic library supply
- Elsevier acquires Mendeley
2014
- Swets bankruptcy
2015
- EBSCO acquires YBL (GOBI)
- ProQuest acquires Coutts/MyiLibrary
- ProQuest acquires Ex Libris, a predominant library catalogue system
- Springer and Macmillan (Palgrave) merge
- Luminos (University of California Press) open access
2016
- Follett acquires Baker & Taylor
- Wiley acquires Atypon
2017
- JSTOR develops aggregator EBA
- Luminos books available on Knowledge Unlatched
- Ingram acquires NBNi
- O’Reilly sells PubFactory
2018
- Lever Press (2016) on Fulcrum platform (University of Michigan Press)
- Waterstones sold (James Daunt remains CEO)
2019
- MIT Press Direct
- ProQuest acquires Innovative Interfaces
2020
- COVID-19 shuts down most organizations and institutions
- Academic libraries scramble to make content accessible online
- Accelerates academic library switch from print to ebooks
- Bertrams (and Dawson Books) bankruptcy
2021
- Clarivate (“Big Data”) acquires ProQuest
Conclusion
So where have we arrived in the current moment?
“Information technology” companies have replaced “product distribution” companies. The sale of a product is losing ground to the value of use and user information, and to the repackaging of this information to win recurring sales to intermediaries, content suppliers, and end-users. Key elements of this data-harvesting machine are:
- Use-data
- Discovery services
- Library automation systems
Libraries have evolved from “book barns” to “content portals” or “delivery vessels.”
Content selection and delivery processes have become increasingly–and fundamentally–automated.
Fredric Nachbaur is Director of Fordham University Press. Michael Zeoli is Director of De Gruyter’s Publisher Partner Program.