Streamlining Library E-Book Purchasing: Fixing Workflow Gaps

• E-book purchasing often spans multiple systems and workflows, creating extra steps for library staff.
• The biggest cost of fragmented workflows may be the staff time spent checking, transferring and reconciling information.
• Integration and automation can help orders, records and invoices move more efficiently between systems.
• Library experiences with Mosaic show how reducing hand-offs can simplify purchasing and help get e-books to users faster.

Buying an e-book should be simple. Why isn't it?

A faculty member needs an e-book. The library finds the title, purchases it and makes it available. On the surface, it sounds like a straightforward transaction.

Behind that transaction, however, there can be a surprising number of steps. Library staff may need to search for the title, compare access models, verify existing holdings, check pricing and availability, place an order, create or confirm records, process an invoice, activate access and make sure the resource is discoverable. Depending on title availability and licensing terms, staff may also need to check back with the original requestor.

None of those activities are unnecessary. The friction comes from what happens between them.

When the information needed to complete an acquisition is spread across different systems, library staff often become the connection point. They move from one platform to another, recheck information, monitor transactions or manually move data forward. What appears to be one purchase becomes a series of hand-offs. That raises an important question as libraries consider the next generation of acquisition technology: How many touchpoints are too many?

The real cost of fragmented acquisitions

The challenge with hand-offs is not necessarily that any individual step takes a significant amount of time. It is that those steps are repeated across an entire acquisitions program.

A selector might need to determine whether the library already owns a title before making a purchasing decision. Acquisitions staff may then need to verify licensing information, assign funds and make sure the order is represented correctly in the library services platform. After purchase, someone may need to confirm that records have arrived, process an invoice or troubleshooting access.

Multiply those interventions across hundreds or thousands of titles and the cumulative cost becomes much more significant.

There is also a less visible cost: the knowledge required to keep a fragmented workflow functioning. Staff need to know which system contains which information, when to move to another platform and what to do when an integration does not work as expected. These processes are often homegrown, and a workflow that depends heavily on institutional knowledge can become difficult to document, teach and maintain.

For libraries operating with limited staff capacity, this distinction matters. Improving efficiency means offering a workflow that helps libraries connect these steps within their system of choice, reducing unnecessary work rather than asking staff to move through the same complicated process faster.

A better interface helps, but connection matters more

Modernizing acquisitions is sometimes framed as a user-interface problem. Certainly, a faster, cleaner and more intuitive platform can make searching and ordering easier. But an attractive interface does not solve fragmentation if staff still must leave it repeatedly to complete the transaction.

The bigger opportunity is interoperability.

When acquisition platforms connect effectively with the systems libraries already use, information can move with the transaction. APIs and other integrations can help surface order details from the library services platform, such as available funds and locations, and support order transfers and record exchange. EDI can transfer invoice information without requiring staff to recreate it elsewhere.

This is why evaluating a book acquisition platform requires looking beyond a list of integrations. Libraries need to understand what those connections accomplish. EBSCO's article on what to consider when evaluating a book acquisition platform recommends looking at how well a platform connects with the library's existing technology environment and whether those connections support a more efficient workflow.

That is an important distinction. Adding another platform to an already complicated technology stack is not necessarily modernization. A new platform creates meaningful value when it reduces the number of places staff have to go and the number of times they have to intervene.

What can fewer hand-offs look like in practice

The difference becomes clearer when we look at what happens after some of those manual steps are removed.

At Reed College, Mosaic by GOBI Library Solutions is used as the library's primary platform for perpetual e-book acquisition. Technical Services Specialist Melissa Molek can begin by filtering results around Reed's preferred purchasing options, including unlimited-user and DRM-free access when available. That allows purchasing considerations to become part of the search and selection process rather than something staff have to investigate separately later.

The more significant change happens once an order is submitted. Mosaic's integration with Alma allows the purchase order line and electronic portfolio to be created in Alma. After the electronic record is confirmed and the link is activated, the e-book can flow into Primo.

That connected process can dramatically shorten the distance between a request and access. As Molek explained in EBSCO's customer story about perpetual e-book acquisition at Reed College, “It can be as little as half-an-hour from the submission of the order in Mosaic to the book being publicly available in Primo, which is amazing.”

Reed has been able to respond to some faculty requests with a working e-book link within an hour. The impressive part is not simply that someone can place an order quickly. It is that the transaction can continue moving after the order without requiring the same degree of manual intervention at every stage.

That is where the conversation about acquisition efficiency becomes much more meaningful. Saving a click is useful. Removing an entire hand-off is better.

The workflow continues after the order

The ordering interface is often the most visible part of an acquisition platform, but many of the repetitive tasks happen after someone clicks submit.

Invoice processing is a good example. If staff have to manually transfer invoice information between systems, every purchase generates another administrative task. At Reed, EDI integration allows invoice information to be imported automatically so staff can focus on reviewing it rather than recreating it.

Molek describes that review as a quick part of her morning routine: “It takes me like two minutes in the morning. It's the first thing I do, and then I'm done with it for the day.”

That may sound like a small operational detail, but it captures an important principle for acquisition technology. Libraries benefit most when automation removes recurring tasks throughout the workflow, not only when it makes the initial transaction faster. The goal should be a connected path from selection through ordering, records, invoicing and ultimately discovery. Automation can also support the loading of MARC records into Alma. Every stage does not have to happen in the same system, but staff should not have to manually shepherd the transaction between those systems.

Simplification can start with a focused workflow

For many libraries, the idea of changing an acquisition platform raises another concern: implementing a new system can itself create more work. Training, configuration and workflow changes can make modernization feel like one more project competing for limited staff time. That is why simplification should extend to onboarding and adoption as well.

East Central University offers a useful example. After Customer Success Manager Dana Belcher attended a Mosaic webinar, she signed up and received an account the same day. She was able to begin using the platform without an extensive training or configuration process.

“I don't think I needed training,” Belcher said in EBSCO's look at East Central University's Mosaic onboarding experience. “Any library ordering through GOBI could easily place orders in Mosaic.”

East Central University's approach is also a reminder that modernization does not necessarily require changing every acquisition process at once. The library uses Mosaic for staff-selected firm e-book orders while continuing to manage its Demand Driven Acquisition program through GOBI. That focused approach can be valuable. Instead of thinking about modernization solely as a wholesale system replacement, libraries can examine individual workflows and ask where consolidation or better connections could eliminate unnecessary work.

What should a more connected acquisition workflow accomplish?

Platforms such as Mosaic point toward a broader shift in how acquisition technology can be designed. The goal is not simply to create a newer place to buy a book. It is to bring more of the information and processes surrounding that purchase into a connected workflow. Mosaic, for example, brings together library-specific title information, real-time pricing and availability, purchasing options, transaction management and catalog-record downloads. It also integrates with library services platforms including Alma and FOLIO, with OCLC WorldShare Management Services (WMS) integration planned.

Those capabilities matter because book acquisition does not happen in isolation. Libraries still need their library services platforms, discovery systems and other technologies. The objective is not necessarily to force every function into a single application. It is to make the boundaries between applications less burdensome for staff.

A useful way to evaluate that is to look at a common transaction from beginning to end. How many systems does someone need to open? How often is the same information entered or verified? Can staff easily see available access models and existing holdings? What happens after an order is submitted? Can order information, records and invoices move automatically? How much monitoring does the process require before the title reaches the user? These questions tell libraries something that a traditional feature checklist may miss. They reveal how much work exists between the features.

Fewer hand-offs, more time for the work that matters

Book acquisition will always involve complexity because collection development itself involves complex decisions. Librarians need to decide what to acquire, which format and access model best serves their users, how a purchase fits the collection and how to make the best use of available funds. Those are meaningful decisions. They require professional judgment and should remain in the hands of library staff.

The complexity created by disconnected systems is different. Re-entering information, checking whether data transferred successfully or moving repeatedly between platforms does not make a collection stronger. It simply consumes time. The experiences at Reed College and East Central University offer two different examples of what can happen when some of that friction is removed. At Reed, integrations and automation help move a perpetual e-book from order to public availability in as little as half an hour. At East Central University, a straightforward onboarding experience allowed the library to begin using a new ordering workflow quickly while retaining other established acquisition processes. Neither represents a universal model for every library. Systems, staffing, purchasing strategies and institutional needs vary widely. But both point toward the same goal: technology should do more of the work of connecting the acquisition process, so library staff do not have to.

The future of e-book acquisition is not about eliminating professional decisions. It is about eliminating unnecessary obstacles between those decisions and the people who need the books.

For libraries evaluating their acquisition workflows, the opportunity is bigger than replacing one ordering interface with another. It is a chance to identify where manual steps, duplicate work and disconnected systems are consuming staff time, and where better integration could simplify the path from selection to access.

Mosaic by GOBI Library Solutions is designed to support that more connected approach, bringing book acquisition workflows, purchasing information and library system integrations closer together.