Challenges in management of e-book collections in İstanbul University libraries

Developments in information and communication technologies, and especially the internet, have led to the emergence of the field of electronic publishing and the prevalence of the ebook, which is an extension of it. University libraries that support education and research have also followed these developments in publishing by adding ebooks to their collections. The selection, purchase, cataloguing and accessibility of this new format, which saves time and space for its users and the library, requires mastery of technical and professional knowledge that is much different from the printed media. The aim of this thesis is to examine how the ebook collection in university libraries is managed, to identify the problems and opportunities in ebook collection management based on the literature, and to investigate whether these problems and others are experienced in university libraries in Istanbul. In order to realize this aim, the sample of the research was determined as Istanbul. The sample consists of the libraries of the universities that are in the top 20 in the Istanbul ranking according to the scientific activity data of URAP (University Ranking by Academic Academic Performance). Data were collected by semi-structured interview technique from librarians responsible for ebook management in research university libraries. The findings of the research show that most of the problems experienced in ebook collection management are related to budget and cost. Due to the constant change in the exchange rate in Turkey, the constant melting of the budget allocated to the library and the partial allocation of budgets on the basis of state universities are the main problems.