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168 Journal of Library Science in China, Vol.10, 2018

recommended for a long time. Therefore, In the last few years, Chinese e-book vendors have been
launching various sale platforms and attempting new ways by selling electronic copies in retail.
That means collection development librarians should identify its future so as to figure out what to
do.
In terms of bibliography comparison, the article compares four kinds of Chinese e-book
bibliographies from their publishers, publication and date, including category A: bibliographies
from database of e-book package; category B: those from e-book platforms with retail sale which
is library-oriented; category C: those from e-book platforms with retail sale which is not library-
oriented but individual-oriented; and category D: those from the paper books of University
libraries, The data cut off time was as of April 2017.
The contrast of data from 2010 to 2016 shows that the lately launched Chinese e-books are
mostly available in category B, the library-oriented platform with retail sale, rather than category
A, the platforms with e-book package. The available e-books in category A have been less
than those in category B in the first four years backstepping from April 2017, and in terms of
e-book bibliographies appropriate for East China Normal University (ECNU) library, which is a
prestigious university in suburban Minhang District in Shanghai, the amount in category B has
always far outstripped that in category A. The amount of e-book bibliographies in category B has
exceeded that in category A whatever it is in the total amount of e-books, supply amount from
core publishers or selected amount by mainland university libraries. However, from platforms of
category B, university libraries have no way to obtain most of the Chinese electronic formats of the
paper publication in the first year, because publishers may not put most electronic copies on sale
until the second to the four years after the publication of printed format.
Statistics indicates that the monopolization of Chinese e-books bundled in package breaks down,
but the publishers have scruples about retailing electronic copies synchronously with printed
format. So the article suggests that university libraries should act as pioneers to jointly take the
strategy “Single copy policy of Chinese paper books”, so as to underline their role in the whole
supply chain of Chinese e-books from the perspective of integration of printed books and electronic
copies as well as check and balance on interest chains, eliminate the publisher’s reluctance to sell
the electronic format and finally underpin the sound and rapid development of domestic library-
oriented market.
However, the study, because of its limited space, is confined to macro, rough analyses of current
library-oriented market on the basis of partial data. And precise figures are needed for a further and
rigorous inquiry.