After several years of buying ebooks through consortial purchases and subscribing to e-only journals whenever possible, Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) Library adopted a full-fledged e-preferred acquisitions policy in July 2013. The electronic version became the default choice when ordering all types of library materials. This new policy might seem straight-forward to the library management, but during the actual execution, many challenges and issues were encountered. Not only did it require a change of workflow, but the ebook pricing (against print books and among different aggregators), the quality of ebooks on different platforms, the hosting of the standalone ebooks, the licenses, the access models, etc. all needed a full review and discussion. How the usage statistics are to be used and when to review, as well as the reporting of the library collection expenditure after the implementation of the e-preferred policy all demanded a re-work. This presentation aims to share the HKBU experience and to offer tips, advice and best practices to libraries who wish to go electronic full-fledged.
