When an individual purchases an ebook, it it fairly straightforward. You purchase a single PDF that you can download to your computer / mobile device, or you purchase a title associated with your account (think Barnes and Noble or Amazon). You may get a single download, or you may be able to load it to multiple devices (smartphone and tablet). You may even be able to share it with family members on your account.
Libraries purchase ebooks differently. We may have an annual subscription, or we may purchase as part of package (think ClinicalKey), we can also purchase individual titles. Pricing for these individual ebooks varies depending on the amount of people who can login at a time. Single user access (one user at a time) is typically less expensive that multi user access. Multi-user can fall into two categories: A) Three users at a time or B) Unlimited users. We determine what level of access to purchase based on the size of the clinic / program, and the cost of the book. Some books (for example, WHO Tumor Classification Guides) are not available to institutions in ebook format. In those cases, we purchase print. If questions, please reach out to us via the Ask the Library link.
ATAMMC Library