Two characteristics of e-books – availability and flexibility – make them appealing in the academic environment. Access anytime, anywhere, and full text searching are functionalities highly valued by students and staff. E-book collections in academic libraries are growing. Libraries are investing huge proportions of their budgets in e-books, but how do we know that e-books are worth it? Can we prove that libraries are getting value for their money? This presentation will look into statistics of usage and demonstrate what they can deliver. It will discuss different measures available to evaluate e-book usage. It will also look into what improvements can be done to better measure and evaluate the investment in e-books.

1. E-books – how can we show they’re worth it? Ksenija Mincic-Obradovic The University of Auckland CCA-EDUCAUSE Australasia Sydney, 3-6 April 2011

3. Powerful teaching tool

4. Gap between functionality and usability

5. http://assets.bizjournals.com/cms_media/images/ebookuniversel.png?site=techflash.com

6. How can we find out if e-books are worth it? User surveys Statistical data gathered locally from library systems Statistical data provided by vendors and publishers

7. The University of Auckland 14 subject specific libraries and information commons Over 2.5 million hardcopy items 450,000+ e-books, 100,000+ e-journals, 850+ databases Serves 30,000 students, and 10,500 staff Ranks with the top 5 Australian university libraries Voyager Catalogue has 1.8 million records

8. http://www.projectcounter.org/

9. http://www.niso.org/workrooms/sushi

10. When are e-books used?

11. Are e-books used for reference or for reading? Safari statistics of usage, 2004-2010

12. Print or e? ebrary site activity for 2010

13. Most popular print/e-books

14. Safari – five most popular print/e-books in Feb 2011

15. NetLibrary most popular titles

16. Importance of library catalogues SpringerLink usage and MARC records: 2007 – Springer 2008 – Improved Springer 2009 – OCLC

18. More print options

19. More, and better bibliographic recordsMore standardised statistical data

20. Questions and comments k.obradovic@auckland.ac.nz