Collection Sharing and Information Discovery System with enriched digital content (QESS Project No.: T01/QESS/2013)
The project is supported by the Quality Enhancement Support Scheme (QESS) under the Self-financing Post-secondary Education Fund of the HKSAR Education Bureau. It aims to enrich the current library collections by building a shared e-Book collection through collaborative purchase among the five self-financing institutes. E-Book vendors are invited to propose the terms of trade for consideration by the Central Project Team. Requirements for the supply of e-Books for this project are listed below.
1. The e-Books supplied should be available for shared access by the current staff and students or library users of the following institutions on a perpetual basis:
| Institution |
2021/2022 Student FTE |
| Hong Kong Metropolitan University (HKMU) |
16,758 |
| (formerly "The Open University of Hong Kong") |
|
| Saint Francis University (SFU) |
4,176 |
| (formerly "Caritas Institute of Higher Education") |
|
| Hong Kong Chu Hai College (HKCHC) |
329 |
| Hong Kong Shue Yan University (HKSYU) |
3,698 |
| Tung Wah College (TWC) |
3,055 |
2. The online e-Book platform should be able to control and authenticate access to the e-Books by the IP addresses of the member institutes without any username or password.
3. Remote access to the e-Books outside the campus by the current staff and students of the member libraries should be allowed via EZproxy and MillenniumWAM.
4. MARC records of the purchased e-Books should be provided without any extra fees and should meet the format requirements of individual libraries. Sample MARC records should be provided free-of-charge for testing by individual libraries.
5. A two-month trial access should be provided to member libraries free-of-charge for testing on the user interface or on remote access.
6. A one-off purchase model that allows title-by-title selection without ongoing access fee is preferred.
7. The e-Book acquisition will be centralized for quotation, order confirmation, billing and payment to be handled by HKMU, complying with the Library Acquisition Policies and Procedures of HKMU.
8. Requests for quotations will be sent to vendors for price comparison using a standard form/template.
9. Orders are expected to be fulfilled within one month. This includes activation of the e-Book titles for online access at the sites of all member institutes, the provision of access URLs in an excel file to HKMU and the delivery of MARC records to the individual member libraries. Confirmed orders that are not fulfilled within three months will be cancelled.
10. Refund should be made to HKMU for paid titles withdrawn from shared and perpetual access or for paid titles with access problems failed to be fixed within three months from the reporting date.
11. Payment will only be made upon the receipt of all the MARC records satisfying the format requirements of all the member libraries.
12. E-Book vendors are requested to provide a file or a web link to a list of publishers participating at the e-Book platform and/or a complete title list available for shared and perpetual access. The title list should include information such as title, author, publisher, ISBN, publication year and subject categories/classification numbers.
13. To facilitate new member libraries joining the project in the future, vendors are encouraged to provide a pricing scheme/schedule for accommodating additional members sharing the access of the e-Book titles.
14. All e-Book vendors are welcome to propose their terms of trade for this project. Proposals will be reviewed by the Central Project Team as long as funding for the e-book acquisition is available. HKMU will approach vendors for quotations and for monthly new title lists after the terms of trade are accepted by the Central Project Team. Interested vendors may contact the e-Book project team at libqess@hkmu.edu.hk for further details.
QESS E-Book Requirements
7 November 2013
6 January 2017 - FTE updated
30 Jun 2023 – FTE updated
