Ebooks & Students

Session #414 - Student Experience of eBooks: How they are found, used and (not) read
This session may have ramifications on the use of eBooks by segments of MPL customers, especially students.
Notes:Conducted for Undergrad, Grad students and faculty at U of TE-resources changes were occurring at U of T during time of study (2008). Services were “state of the art”. Few studies on topic at that time.
{British study – Ebooks Observatory(2008) : younger students tend to be online more and read from screens. “Full adoption of eBooks is inevitable”}

Why are Ebooks different? Not all media transform directly into eBooks.
• Print is not going away: print publications continue to increase rapidly.
• “Serious” readers still prefer printed books.

Undergrads of “Google age” still prefer print (!!) & want a printed page.
• Aesthetics & practical reasons
• Does NOT apply to journals – different needs
But they still use Google for quick reference – “Skimming, hopping”

Students & scholars have different information practices. eBook use is the “starting point” for research. Faculty rely on Google for teaching (lecture notes). For research, refereed articles or specific book of interest are sought.

How do they start research? 1st Level:1. Web search engines2. Wikipedia3. Google Scholar

2nd Level:1. Start using eBooks (25-35% of respondents)

Print still used about twice level of eBooks. eJournals used about twice level of paper journals.

Usability: eBooks about ½ as easy to use as eJournals.

Interactivity User behavior: Not all students start with Google, but rather some other Web source. However, many use a “lazy” search behavior using and use simplest terms and levels (“close enough”). But they cannot find eBooks as well using this method since it is not matched with metadata.
• Undergrads Discover eBook via catalog for specific titles
• Grads/faculty go to eJournals first• Students follow subjects & learn them
• They generally have a good experience discovering eBooks. Mostly in Humanities, then Soc. Sciences. Few In Sciences. But still prefer print books.
• Want downloading for later use – portability. Have navigation and usability problems• Findability: use efficient paths- (“good enough”)
• Unaware of limitations
• Size of collection NOT major factor. Not intimidated by size.

Disciplines
* Humanities: needs specific authors, titles. Regular users (Perhaps target audience!)
* Engineering: much prefer journals. Sciences: journals. Soc. Sciences: mostly journal, some eBooks
* These 3 groups need more currency than humanities.
* Start with Google (Scholar/Books)

Grad student much more expert searchers than undergrads. Learns from professors or 4th year requirements.
* Humanities grad students: Foraging and skimming, scanning. Read very little online. Book reading is not sophisticated enough. No deep reading online. Prefer print but want some access to eBooks (Is this similar to public library customers?)
* Engineering & Science: need only journals or very selective titles.

Browsers frame their research, open multiple tabs. Multiple books or articles. Want cost savings but NOT at price of accuracy. Google is just used for quick access to start research. Innovations in print books or eBooks would greatly increase usability.

Libraries often purchased too many items but don’t consider access (records). They thought there would be one interface but platforms changed.

eBook Goals
• Demand
• Convenience
• Equality
• Discovery
• Assessment
Some users use an eBook but may not identify it as such!

Physical distance important for use but
• We don’t know how they use print books (!)
• We don’t know impact
• We think usage will increase

Historical/local/archival usage will become an important niche for eBook use. Community use more important.

Summary
• Multiple approaches needed
• OPAC is a Secondary approach!
• eBooks have not been targeted for federated searching (mistake)
• Library guidance via website very important
• Usage stats difficult & not consistent across vendors/publishers
• Overall usage much greater than for print but little is known how they are used
• Most usage when library is physically closed
• Higher usage at beginning of week, then declines
• We are only just beginning to see increased usage (cf. eJournals in late 1990’s)
• Publisher’s not motivated to improve access or content
Larry