"There seems to be great resistance to netLibrary on the part of the bibliographers. Perhaps books are the last bastion of the traditional library. Perhaps these books have not been used to a great extent. However, I think this is the future, and I hope they will change their opinions soon." Susan Vaughn, Associate Librarian for Collection Development
In 2000 the Library ventured into new e-territory by subscribing to netLibrary www.netlibrary.com, a large collection of full-text electronic books. While netLibrary titles are read from the PC screen (rather than via the hand-held devices that SoftBook and Rocket E-Book use) the collection of scholarly resources the service offers is quite appealing. NetLibrary has adopted a library service model: students check out electronic titles much as they do print ones. The company also provides catalog records for CUNY+. netLibrary will be a boon to distance learners, particularly now that the College offers proxy service to students, enabling them to check out and access e-books from remote locations.
netLibrary began to show fiscal wobbliness in 2001 and was purchased by OCLC. At Brooklyn College, thus far both the appeal and use of e-books has been slight. It will be interesting to see whether the implementation of Aleph, a fully Web-based catalog, increases usage-–certainly it will increase visibility. In addition, CUNY plans to load catalog records for the portion of the collection it has purchased. This means that catalog records for many "classics" will become available, making the books they represent easier to identify. NYLink is presently working on assembling a second shared collection, but it seems unlikely that Brooklyn will be able to afford it. Meanwhile, netLibrary adds more and more publishers, infused with new life after its purchase by OCLC.
| CUNY Collection | 122 accesses | |
| NYLINK Collection | 565 accesses |