After much anticipation and some apprehension, Questia and ebrary are scheduled to launch their products in early 2001.  Together with netLibrary, these three companies will provide on-line access to hundreds of thousands of digital books, periodicals, maps and archival works, all available 24x7.  Access to the digital content is enhanced through the use of full-text search engines and on-line research tools.  Although each company is creating its own set of research tools, they will all include the functionality for mark-up and annotations, automatic generation of citations and bibliographies and easy access to dictionary definitions.  Although Questia, netLibrary and ebrary share the basic concept of providing continuous access to digital information, this is where the similarities stop.  On a fundamental level, the business models of each differ radically, particularly in the areas of target markets, pricing schemes and the location or absence of the library within the distribution model.
 

netLibrary- Launched in March 1999, the Boulder-based company started with only 2,000 titles (about half of which were public domain titles).  Today, the netLibrary collection contains over 26,000 titles with another 6,000 in production.  The range of subjects includes the humanities, social sciences, computer science and business. 

In netLibrary's business model, libraries (academic, public and school) are the target market.  Libraries purchase access to the titles on behalf of their patrons.  Each library can tailor their netLibrary collection by selecting a subset of titles from the larger netLibrary collection.   The ebooks reside on netLibrary's servers.  Access is granted to the appropriate collection based on the user's IP address or login.  Pricing schemes vary, but in general, a year's worth of access to a title is equal to the title's list price, plus a yearly adminsitrative subscription cost.   Access to a title in perpetuity can be purchased at the one-time cost of 11/2 times the list price.   Each netLibrary title has been put in escrow with OCLC, so that if netLibrary should fold, a library that has purchased access to a title in perpetuity would receive from OCLC a copy of the ebook file.  The library would then have to mount the ebooks on its own servers.  Patrons can locate a title within the netLibrary collection either through netLibrary's homepage (www.netlibrary.com) which is customized based on IP address and login or through URL links from a library's OPAC.  MARC cataloging records for the netLibrary titles are available for purchase from OCLC.

Access to the titles within netLibary mirrors the traditional library circulation model.   Only one person at a time can be viewing a copyrighted title within the collection.  A patron is allowed to browse a title for up to 15 minutes.   Afterwhich, the patron can either "check-out" the book or allow it to go back into the collection.  "Check-out" requires that the patron have created a personalized netLibrary account, which is a relatively simple process.  Once checked-out, only that patron has access to the book for whatever circulation period the library initially determines and can access that title from anywhere, even outside of the library's IP address.  When the circulation period expires, the patron loses access to the title and it is "returned" to the collection.   Usage statistics are provided to each member library through netLibrary's intranet.
 

Questia- The Questia collection is scheduled for launch in January 2001.  The initial collection will include approximately 50,000 of "the most frequently cited and consulted books, journals and periodicals in key liberal arts subjects such as anthropology, economics, English/literature, history, philosophy, political science, psychology and sociology." (from Questia Media Kit)   Questia's plan is to grow its collection to include over 250,000 books and journals within the next three years. 

Unlike netLibrary, Questia is marketing its service directly to academic students, bypassing the library.  Students pay a subscription (price and duration not yet determined) which provides access to the entire Questia collection.  Questia in turn tracks the use of each title within the collection and pays royalities to publishers based on actual usage.  Subscribers cannot download or save the texts, but they can print one page at a time, as well as copy and paste portions of the documents (complete with citation) into a text editor. 

Differing from the netLibrary model, a text can be used by more than one user at a time.  Moreover, the subscription provides access to the entire Questia collection which changes with each newly added text.   Although the netLibrary collection is increasing daily, any individual library's collection remains static unless the library pays for access to additional netLibrary titles.

Questia's FAQ for librarians ( http://www.questia.com/librarian_faq.html ) states that the company has no immediate plans to offer libraries the option of purchasing site licenses.  Questia's target market is individual subscribers, and they feel confident that students will be willing to pay the subscription fee out of their own pocket-money.

ebrary- ebrary's collection, which is slated for launch in early 2001, will extend beyond books and periodicals to include annuals, maps and manuals in a full range of disciplines, including arts and humanities, sciences, engineering, technology, medicine and law.   No indications have been made about the size of the collection. 

Users can search through and view the entire ebrary collection for free.  Fees are assessed on a per-use basis whenever the user prints or downloads a document.  As with Questia, the fees are paid by the user, not by a library on behalf of its users.  However, ebrary's business model does include a partnering role for libraries.  ebrary asks its library partners to:

• Include ebrary.com as part of the library homepage or enter into a co-branding arrangement for the library homepage. 
• Display provided point-of-terminal promotional materials around appropriate computer terminals. 
• Allocate time during library seminars and tutorials to demonstrate the functionality of ebrary.com.
  (from ebrary's Library FAQ)

Summary Table:
 
 

	netLibrary	Questia	ebrary
Target Market	public, academic & school libraries	academic students	academic students
Role of libraries	create and purchase access to collection on behalf of patrons	none	market ebrary in exchange for 5% of revenues
Number of documents within collection	26,000 +	50,000 by Jan 2001; 250,000 within 3 years	not known
Types of documents	monographs	monographs and journals	monographs, journals, annuals, maps and manuals
Method of purchased access	by title plus yearly subscription fee	subscription	pay per use
Extent of access	limited to static collection determined by library	entire collection	entire collection
Number of simultaneous users that can use a given text	one user at a time	unlimited	unlimited
Records provided for library's public catalog?	yes, if MARC records are purchased and loaded	no	no