Martha Sedgwick recently gave this presentation at the Online Information conference in London, December 2011

1. Shifting Patterns of User Engagement with Ebooks
Martha Sedgwick
Senior Manager Online Products, SAGE Los Angeles | London | New Delhi
Singapore | Washington DC
@coffeepot

2. Ebook availability amongst academic vendors has
increased rapidly over the last decade
2009 – Barnes & Noble
1971 Project 2003 – Oxford release the Nook
Gutenberg kicks 2011 – Oxford Scholarship
Scholarship Online Re-launch
off and the Online 2010 – Cambridge
ebook is launches Books Online
invented 2006 – MyiLibrary
acquired by Ingram launches
1999 – NetLibrary Digital
2011 – Kindle Fire tablet
launches with 40 2010 – iPad
2004 – first ink e-book released by Amazon
publishers released by Apple
reader released, the
Sony Libre
2004 – Google Books 2011 – Google
launches eBookstore
1997 – Palm 2000 – 2007 – launches
releases first T&F ebook Amazon 2010 –
PDA collection releases the EBSCO
launches 2011 – iPad 2 Released
Kindle acquires
2011 – by Apple
NetLibrary
Proquest
2003 - Google 2006 – Springer launches acquires
Books site ebook collection with 10K Ebrary
Launched titles
SAGE Online Products Los Angeles | London | New Delhi
Singapore | Washington DC

3. Libraries are the prime purchasers of
ebooks for the academic market
Liverpool University = 200,000+
University of Stockholm = 200,000
Penn State University = 203,000
Duke University = 553,698
However, despite the high volume of purchases,
studies have found that there is still relatively low
awareness of the existence of ebooks.
SAGE Online Products Los Angeles | London | New Delhi
Singapore | Washington DC

4. Emergence of mobile reading devices
SAGE Online Products Los Angeles | London | New Delhi
Singapore | Washington DC

5. Despite this growth, the proportion of use on
mobile for academic purposes is still low
● “I might use a mobile for reading a journal article if I’m
running late. I’ve thought about getting a Kindle, but haven’t
taken the plunge yet.”
● “I don’t use a mobile phone for academic purposes – I have
an old-school phone and don’t have enough money to
upgrade it.”
● “I use my cell phone just for personal, not for my research.”
● “I have an iPhone and a couple of times I’ve bought stuff on
my iPhone for my work when I’ve been desperate.”
● “I have an iPhone but I don’t use it for research, mostly for
email”
● “I have an iPhone and an iPad and I’ve looked at journal
websites and articles on these devices, but I don’t actively
use them for research, per se.”
SAGE Online Products Los Angeles | London | New Delhi
Singapore | Washington DC

6. So, what is the impact of all of this on
our users?
SAGE Online Products Los Angeles | London | New Delhi
Singapore | Washington DC

7. Saturday
Friday 10.04am Tuesday
5.54pm -
- Living room 2.30pm -
Living room
Ebook: Family Library
Book: An
relationships in Book:
introduction to
middle Cognitive
brain and
childhood Psychology
behavior
Saturday Tuesday 5.30 Sun
3.08pm -Dining - Library cafe 9.40_Train
table Book: The station
Book: How memory Book:
children develop keeper's Cognitive
daughter psychology
Tuesday Sunday
6.30 - Living 9.50pm –
Saturday Train
3.10pm - Dining room
Book: How Book:
table Cognitive
Book: Cognitive children
develop Psychology
psychology
Thursday
Wednesday 5.33 - Living
1.24pm room
Living room Book: The
Monday 9.45am
Book:An memory
- Dining table
introdcution keeper's
Book: How
to brain and daughter
children develop
behavior
SAGE Online Products Los Angeles | London | New Delhi
Singapore | Washington DC

8. Give us one word that you would use
to describe ebooks
SAGE Online Products Los Angeles | London | New Delhi
Singapore | Washington DC

9. Skip Handy Easier
Search Annoying
Miss
Out
Practical Quick Convenient
Scope Useful User-Unfriendly
Frustrating Preconceptions
Accessible
Unknown Easy Less
Heresy
Cold
SAGE Online Products Los Angeles | London | New Delhi
Singapore | Washington DC

10. Core use of ebooks is for quick look
ups and reference, or discovery
purposes
● Abdullah & Gibb (2008) – 2 most popular
reasons for using ebooks are: finding
relative content and selective reading
● In our interviews, terms we hear associated
to the use of ebooks include: “SKIM”,
“PREVIEW”, “RE-READ”, “REFERENCE
CHECKING”
SAGE Online Products Los Angeles | London | New Delhi
Singapore | Washington DC

11. What features do you value most in online academic
What features do you value most in online academic products?
products? (2008 survey)
90.00%
Academic Researchers
80.00%
Postgraduates
70.00%
Undergraduates
60.00%
% selection
50.00%
40.00%
30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
Search facility Links through to Keyword and Access Useful to browse Easy to print Easy to link into Easy to read long Other
SAGE Online Productsmaterials
other related link opportunities from and discover materials Virtual Learning Angeles | London | New Delhi
Los texts
that are searching multiple small samples of EnvironmentsSingapore | Washington DC
referenced in a geographic content to read (e.g. Blackboard,
text locations at any WebCT, Moodle)
time of the day

12. “I always read on paper. I’ve got a Mac and so when I find a paper I’m
interested in I save the PDF within a project folder and then I’ll print it off and
read it later.”
Daniel, Lecturer, De Paul University, USA, 2008
“I use them to check references – I’ll type in a quote on Google and sometimes it throws
up chapters of a book… If I want to buy a book [in print] I will always browse for a
preview online.”
Nina (PhD student, Education) 2011
“Ebooks are a bit like an added feature of print books. You can use them
to search and find things, but then you ultimately want the print book to
read.”
James, PhD student, University of York, 2011
SAGE Online Products Los Angeles | London | New Delhi
Singapore | Washington DC

13. Printing and downloading is key
SAGE Online Products Los Angeles | London | New Delhi
Singapore | Washington DC

14. SAGE Online Products Los Angeles | London | New Delhi
Singapore | Washington DC
Survey (2011)

15. Therefore, tight DRM is a pain
“I hate one of the ebook sites because of the DRM restrictions to printing, and I don’t like
reading on screen. The interface is very clunky and regularly crashes my browser.”
James, PhD student, University of York, 2008
SAGE Online Products Los Angeles | London | New Delhi
Singapore | Washington DC

16. There is a shift towards more comfort
with online reading
‘A couple of times I’ve asked the library to buy a book and
they’ve bought the eBook version… I read them at home… I can
imagine a scenario where I might use my iPhone if I needed to…
but my worry is that you would lose the book”
Paul (PhD student, History) 2011
“I use PDF downloads of ebooks constantly. We have
copiers at AU that send PDFs to my email so I’m contantly
scanning sections and chapters of books and then I search
through the PDFs. I read the PDFs online, I rarely print
them.”
Kit, History, PhD, American University, 2011
“I use PDF downloads of ebooks constantly. We have
copiers at AU that send PDFs to my email so I’m contantly
scanning sections and chapters of books and then I search
through the PDFs. I read the PDFs online, I rarely print
them.”
Kit, History, PhD, American University, 2011
SAGE Online Products Los Angeles | London | New Delhi
Singapore | Washington DC

17. The design of publisher ebook interfaces
is adapting to these user needs
Slide on publisher sites
SAGE Online Products Los Angeles | London | New Delhi
Singapore | Washington DC

18. SAGE Online Products Los Angeles | London | New Delhi
Singapore | Washington DC

19. SAGE Online Products Los Angeles | London | New Delhi
Singapore | Washington DC

20. Supporting search and discovery
through semantic linking
Source: Temis
SAGE Online Products Los Angeles | London | New Delhi
Singapore | Washington DC

21. Concluding thoughts….
SAGE Online Products Los Angeles | London | New Delhi
Singapore | Washington DC

22. Thank you!
Martha Sedgwick, Senior Manager, Online
Products
Email: martha.sedgwick@sagepub.com
Twitter: @coffeepot
SAGE Online Products Los Angeles | London | New Delhi
Singapore | Washington DC