3. 3
Current Trends in Use of eBooks in North America ①
ebrary Survey 2008 Spring Students: 2,134 Librarians: 100
Does your library have eBooks?
YES
68.5
92
Students
1.5
4
NO
Librarians
30
DON’T KNOW
4
0
20
40
60
80
100
%
Librarians were asked to take the survey as if they were students.
4. 4
Current Trends in Use of eBooks in North America ②
How often do you use eBooks that
your library provides?
More than 10 hours
per week
1.5
2.6
5-10 hours per week
3
1
Students
15
1-5 hours per week
27
Librarians
32.5
Less than 1 hour
per week
Never
56
48
13
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
%
Librarians were asked to take the survey as if they were students.
5. 5
Current Trends in Use of eBooks in North America ③
If never, why?
I do not know where to
find eBooks
27
3
23
I prefer printed books
10
Students
Librarians
6
eBooks are too difficult
to read
13
2.3
eBooks are too difficult
to use
7
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
%
Librarians were asked to take the survey as if they were students.
6. 6
Current Trends in Use of eBooks in North America ④
What type of resources are you using for
research/class assignment? (plural answers)
Google and other search engines
71
44
Electronic databases (ProQuest,
LexisNexis, JSTOR ,etc.)
eJournals
40
print books
40
eBooks
74
40
40
eReference (online databases,
(o
databases,
encyclopedia, etc.)
67
67
55
61
38
print text
43
36
print reference (dictionaries,
encyclopedias etc.)
60
32
print journals
15
eTextbooks
0
10
Librarians
53
30
Students
24
20
30
40
%
50
60
70
Librarians were asked to take the survey as if they were
80
7. Advantages of eBooks and Types
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Searchablity - not reading but using eBooks as reference and
articles
24/7 Access‐students don’t sleep
Off Campus Access- 60% increase of access to eReserve
Multi-Access – multi-use of eTextbooks
Portability – many eBooks and articles in your personal
computer
7
8. Issues of eBooks Top 3 + 1
1.
2.
3.
4.
Don’t know where to find (27%)
Prefer printed books (23%)
Difficult to read or use (8.3%)
Expensive
8
10. 10
Rapid increase of eJournals’ budget
eJaournals
print journals
120
100
80
% 60
88
87
82
76
65
55
40
20
0
12
13
18
24
1996
1998
2000
2002
35
2004
45
2006
Based on total budget of 3,600 ALA member libraries
11. Reality is Hybrid,
but vision is Digital
11
-Rush Miller
In 2013
“53% of respondents answered they will be using both eBooks and print, 35%
answered they will still prefer printed books and 7% answered they will prefer
eBooks (5% no answer) “
(Springer survey in 2008)
In 2017
“Electronic books, driven by consumer demand, will finally become established as
the primary format for educational textbooks and scholarly books and monographs,
as well as reference formats. “
(CIBER Report in 2007)
12. Reference
Celeto, Cynthia. Springer Web Seminar on eBooks. Attended on November 11, 2008.
Jacoby, JoAnn and Marry S. Laskowski. (2004) Measurement and Analysis of Electronic Reserve Usage:
Toward a New Path in Online Library Service Assessment. portal : Libraries & the Academy, 4(2),
219-232. Retrieved from Project MUSE.
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/portal_libraries_and_the_academy/v004/4.2jacoby.html
Levine-Clark, Michael. (2006). Electronic Book Usage: A Survey at the University of Denver. portal :
Libraries & the Academy, 6(3), 285-299. Retrieved from Project MUSE.
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/portal_libraries_and_the_academy/v006/6.3levine-clark.html
Publishers Communication Group. (2007, November). Library budget predictions for 2008 results from a
telephone survey August 2007. Retrieved from
http://www.pcgplus.com/Resources/LibraryBudgetSurvey2008.pdf
The ebrary team. (2008). 2008 global student e-book survey sponsored by ebrary. Retrieved from
http://www.ebrary.com/corp/collateral/en/Survey/ebrary_student_survey_2008.pdf
The ebrary team. (2008). 2008 global student e-book survey – cloned for librarians. Retrieved from
http://www.ebrary.com/corp/collateral/en/Survey/ebrary_student_survey_cloned_2008.pdf
12
I would like to present current trends in use of eBooks in North America based on surveys conducted by eBooks providers and university libraries, and my interviews with students and librarians in Pitt, which include Rash Miller.
Please see this cartoon first. I like this cartoon. It is on my cabinet. It was carried on the New York Times in 1980 when computer was just introduced to library system and we didn’t know how the technology affected the library system.
However, the cartoon exactly predict what is going on now at the Google project and eBooks business.
This chart and following three charts are based on the ebrary survey conducted last year.
Original survey report includes survey results from all over the world, but I extracted results of North America and analyzed again for this presentation.
In this chart, blue is students and purple is librarians. Librarians were asked to take the survey as if they were students. “Does your library have eBooks?” For this first question, 70% of students answered “yes” but 30% answered “don’t know.”
However, librarians thought that 92% of students knew libraries have eBooks and only 4% of students did not know if libraries have eBooks or not. This survey was conducted last spring, just one year ago, not two or three years ago. We have to think about this discrepancy between students and librarians.
The second question is “How often do you use eBooks that your library provides?” Even put “more than 10 hours per week” and “5-10 hours per week” together, only 4.5% of students use eBooks more than 5 hours per week. About half of students answered never used eBooks.
Number 1 reason why students never used eBooks is that “I do not know where to find eBooks”, which is 27%. On the other hand, librarians answered only 3% of students never used eBooks because they did not know where to find it. There is also huge discrepancy between students and librarians here.
Percentage of students of “eBooks are too difficult to read” and “too difficult to use” are much lower than librarians think. Students are used to read on screen and handle new software much better than librarians think.
At answers for the last question, “What type of resources are you using for research/class assignment?” students shows new trends in use of eBooks.
We understand that “Google and other search engines” come to top answer; however, it was unexpected result that electronic databases, eJournals, print books and eBooks are standing side by side on 40% as second choice.
We can understand that use of print books has decreased to 40% because of the increase of use of electronic resources. Other three electronic resources are equally used means that students who use eBooks know advantage of eBooks as other e-resources.
These advantages are; READ PPT
3. Based on a survey at the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, there was 60% increase of access to eReserve after the library start offer off campus access.
Then, what are issues of eBooks; READ PPT
However, these issues can be resolved by development of technology.
When I had interview with Rush, he said “Development of technology are always beyond our expectations” – READ PPT
As an example of rapid development of technology has changed library services beyond our expectation, this chart shows rapid increase of eJournals’ budget of 3,600 ALA member libraries in last 10 years. In 1996, there was no item as “eJournals” but only “computer files/search services”. There was a note at the 1996 budget that “it was called machine readable materials before.”
Who could predict such rapid increase of budget and use of eJournals in last 10 years? According to 2007 survey by the Publishers Communication Group, percentage of subscribing journal titles by university libraries in North America was eJournals only is 50.6%, print journals only is 32.1% and both is 17.3%. Number of eJournal titles is overwhelmingly increased.
Rush also said “Reality is Hybrid, but vision is Digital.” – There are two predicts by a vendor and an UK institution; READ PPT
Who never know, even these predicts could be overturned by rapid development of technology.
