E‐books access models: an analytical comparative study

Though electronic books (e‐books) are not new, they are slow in their uptake compared to other types of e‐publications such as journals, newspapers. The possible reasons for this could be because the technology for creating/accessing e‐books (both hardware and software) is not yet matured. However, the recent involvement of many commercial publishers and aggregators in publishing and marketing of e‐books has triggered their use. This trend suggests making an analytical comparative study of the e‐book access model. The main purpose of this study is to analyse and compare offline and online e‐book access models.

In this paper an attempt is made to analyse and compare three offline and three online e‐book access models by identifying various specific e‐book access model features. The access models are evaluated based on three‐point scale.

It is observed that among offline access models Microsoft Reader has most of the features well defined and among online access models, Ebrary has most of the features well defined.

Many publishers and aggregators have started producing and marketing e‐books using different types of access models. There are several access models available and each one has its own merits and demerits. However, there has been no study carried out in comparing and analyzing these models. Hence this study is useful for all the stakeholders of e‐book industry viz., creator (author), publisher, aggregator, librarians and users of e‐books.