Ksenija Mincic-Obradovic. E-books in Academic Libraries. Oxford, United Kingdom: Chandos, 2011. 203p. $80 (ISBN 9781843345862)

research library engaged in the effort to become more productively involved in the entire life cycle of knowledge: its creation, critique, and dissemination. If the library, following Carlyle, once found itself at the heart of the university by virtue of its manifestation as a collection of books, the library of the future, according to these authors, is better understood as a place of conversation; a place for discovery, reflection, and play; a generator of creative associations between the notes of the author and the notebook of the reader. 1, the Introduction, discusses the e-book collection at the University of Auckland library and offers a synopsis of the remaining chapters. In chapter 2, " The (Magical) World of E-books, " the author discusses the evolution of e-books, what e-books are, types of e-books, and how e-books function in academics. Some of the advantages of e-books she mentions include that they can be accessed from anywhere, anytime; they save space in the physical library; users can conduct full-text searches; and they are enriched with other media. This chapter concludes with some disadvantages of e-books such as the need for a device and software; the variety of formats; ability for users to read on a computer or device screen; compatibility with citation management software; and technical requirements such as keeping up with the latest versions of software and hardware. The next chapter, " Between Publishers and Library Needs, " looks at a host of issues dealing with " the complexity of e-books as a medium. " For instance, there are a number of e-book publishers and a variety of publishing practices among commercial providers. In addition, free e-books are often produced by individual authors, government agencies, and libraries. One section focuses on libraries as publishers of e-books, while other sections look at pricing and purchase models and copyright and digital rights management. The meat of the work is in chapter 4, " Developing and Managing E-book Collections. " As the author notes, academic libraries are generally moving from print to electronic resources and are shifting more of their budget to e-resources. As the " e-book environment is pretty much unstable and unpredictable " and " it is difficult to create and apply an e-book collection development policy, " the author provides some options for how to handle e-books in terms of selecting and buying; providing access; cataloging; interlibrary loan; and preservation. Mincic-Obradovic provides …