Business As Usual : Amazon . com and the Academic Library

Mary K. Van Ullen is the Bibliographer for Business, Economics, and Geography, University at Albany, University Library, LI-328, Albany, New York 12222 [email protected] ; and Carol Anne Germain is the Networked Resources Education Librarian, University at Albany, University Library, LI-128, Albany, New York 12222 [email protected] . S teve Coffman proposed that libraries emulate Amazon.com, the virtual bookstore giant, with a visually appealing single library catalog that offers personalized service options. Rather than dealing with individual libraries, the borrowing public could seamlessly access the joint collections of all libraries via interlibrary loan (ILL). Coffman noted the impressive buying power of Amazon’s customers and the dotcom’s exploding sales figures. He suggested that libraries could draw and better serve a larger patron base by following Amazon’s techniques. His proposal sparked excitement, interest, and debate in public and academic libraries. While Amazon’s strategy has made an impact in the mass marketing of books, how well does it translate in an education environment? Today’s students eagerly turn to the World Wide Web to gain access to information resources. Could a virtual bookstore, like Amazon.com, support the monographic needs of these students that are traditionally filled by academic libraries? While the academic library and virtual bookstore deal with a similar commodity: the book, they are different enterprises. Yet, this may not be apparent to college students. The authors investigated the ability of Amazon.com to deliver the resources that University at Albany patrons use. Could Amazon.com provide these materials more quickly than the University Libraries for research needs? How appropriate are the personalized and enhanced features of the Amazon.com interface for the academic user? While the thrust of Coffman’s proposal is the creation of a massive, interlibrary loan based global library network, this study focused on the more readily achieved features of Amazon.com that libraries might wish to implement on a local level, such as an easy to use interface, personalization, and catalog enhancements.