STM publisher Springer has released a new white paper on Springer Book Archives (SBA) in partnership with Maverick Publishing Services. The whitepaper 'Reflections on closing the gap in research' tells the story of how the Springer Book Archives came into being and how important titles were rescued from the fragility of a few print copies to become part of the world's largest collection of eBooks. The SBA has been embraced by leading universities worldwide, to be studied and enjoyed by modern scientists and to become part of the ongoing conversation that is scientific enquiry.
The paper includes the insights from leading libraries as to what triggered them to invest in an archive product like SBA and how they see the usage developing across this large collection of books. These universities include the University of Melbourne (Australia), University of Auckland (New Zealand), University of Boras (Sweden) and Istanbul Technical University (Turkey).
The general consensus among all early adopters is that the SBA titles show high usage. Researchers and students are finding that the SBA provides a variety of benefits in supporting their work. In addition, the high usage triggers libraries to explore opportunities for further cost savings of physical storage.
The paper is posted on www.springer.com/bookarchives and will be available at upcoming conferences as well.
The Springer Book Archives links the past, present and future of scholarly research with anytime, anywhere access to STM eBooks dating from the 1840s and including some of the finest minds in science. Via SpringerLink, researchers can easily discover tens of thousands of eBooks, previously unavailable. The Springer Book Archives spans 16 subject collections and comprise around 110,000 eBooks.
