The pandemic thrust a spotlight on eBooks in libraries, and in doing so highlighted their wondrous conveniences and maddening limitations in almost equal measure. Many of the challenges experienced by libraries — in acquisition, collection management, and the user experience — have seen great progress over the last few years. However, despite the dramatic growth of eBooks in academic libraries, the institutional eBook ecosystem is still constrained by availability and pricing, frustrated by user experience limitations, and burdened by collection management challenges. As an aggregator with a vantage point between libraries and publishers, I share thoughts on where we’re headed, which challenges are likely to be solved, and which might hang around over the long term.

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