Dear Professionals,There is boom of e-Resources on the academic front andmostly coming from high profile publishers from West. There are certainadvantages of e-resources in particular E-books, on the other hand there aremany disadvantages. Academic Librariesare on the purchasing spree of acquiring e-books with substantial investment.It is observed that there are certain issues of e-books which are to beexamined. I have visited some colleges and universities for special lecturesand I have note some common grievances of e-book users.1. First and the foremost is that the “Suitabilityof Subject Content” (Syllabus in particular) with the curriculum in ouracademic institutions( Colleges and Universities). The student and teacheropinion is that nearly 60% of the content is not suitable for our coursecontent.2. In our universities, due to the admissionpolicies and procedures, the majority of students are from Rural background andwith medium of instructions in regional language3. The lack of computer literacy.4. The trend of “Copy and paste” will increase andthe attitude to “study” and “assimilate” will decrease.5. It is observed by me that in western libraries,the student use of Print is still higher, and they use their Lap Tops (connectivity is provided in the library) and make notes from printed books.6. What extent the Indian publishers arerepresented in the e-books acquired by our libraries under different consortiaagreements.7. What is the connectivity and IT infrastructureavailable to use the e-books in the libraries.8. Are we following the “IFLA” Guidelines onacquisition of e-resources.I think we must have a second thought on acquiring e-books,(textbook oriented) and find their suitability. There are certain advantages of e-resources, but originated mostly from the West. We arespending nearly Rs. 400 Crores on acquiring e-content from the West and it is onlyabout 10-12% used.The trend in “Scholarly Communication” is towards enteringinto a “neo-colonialism” of information sector, as we see most e-content isrepresentation of foreign publishers.I still say e-content has definite advantages but we mustassess the pros and cons and on their suitability to Indian academic communityin particular to students. Prof. A.Y.AsundiProfessor and Chairman (Ret.)Department of Library and Information Science,and Officer-in-charge IT CentreBangalore University, Bangalore080-23287786, 9980815468 -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.