Title: A tale of three surveys: How librarians, faculty and students perceive and use electronic resources
1A tale of three surveysHow librarians, faculty
and students perceive and use electronic
resourcesOctober 2008
2Overview of ebrary e-book surveys
3Purchase drivers
4Purchase drivers for librarians
- The 4 top factors are interrelated
- Optimizing access
- Price
- Access model
- Curriculum relevance
- Subject
- Currency
5Adoption of e-books
6Adoption of e-books
- A year and a half ago 88 of the surveyed
librarians reported having access to e-books - 45 reported access to over 10,000 e-books
- 78 of the librarians described e-book usage at
their libraries as good to excellent, if you
interpret fair as fairly good - If you interpret fair as not so good, 59 of
librarians found e-book usage as not so good to
poor - The more recent surveys report on usage from the
faculty and student perspective
7Adoption of e-books (cont)
- 89 of the faculty surveyed said they use
electronic resources for research, class
preparation or instruction - 89 websites - .edu, .gov, .org
- 86 e-journals
- 76 databases
- 54 e-books
- 54 of the faculty reported using e-books and of
those - 64 integrate e-books into their courses
- 43 encourage students to use e-books in their
research - 29 use e-books for required course readings
- 52 of the students surveyed said they used
e-books - For those who never use e-books, the most common
reason was that they did not know where to find
e-books
8Drivers of e-book usage
9Drivers of e-book usage
- Students look to faculty, librarians and the
catalog - Librarians are a bit self-deprecating in their
responses if they equated marketing campaigns and
materials with their efforts. - Library instruction efforts were not a choice in
the survey, which librarians may have ranked
higher.
10Electronic resources used for academic purposes
by students
11Electronic resources used for academic purposes
by students
- Keep in mind that this is the 52 of the students
that continued with the survey. - 48 of students reported never using e-books
- About 25 did not know where to find them
- About 20 preferred to use print i.e. hard to
use or read - About 5 other i.e. professor said not to use
them - The good news for e-books is that students mostly
like them once they have found them and learn how
to use them. E-books are just slightly behind
search engines. - Google is king.
- E-journals are in 7th place after textbooks.
12Electronic resources used for academic purposes
by faculty
13Electronic resources used for academic purposes
by faculty
- Just like the students, faculty rank websites
1st. - Unlike students, faculty rank e-journals 2nd
instead of 7th. - And unlike students, faculty rank e-books 6th
instead of 2nd. - Again keep in mind that only students who use
e-books (52) and continued in the survey are
being compared to all faculty usage
14Electronic vs. print resource preference by
students
15Electronic vs. print resource preference by
faculty
16Electronic vs. print resource preference
- 83 of students who said they used e-books find
them preferable often or very often over a print
version - Sometimes (32)
- Often or very often (51).
- 82 of faculty find electronic resources as
useful as print or preferable to print - Equally useful (32)
- Preferable (50)
17Advantages of e-books - faculty
- What do faculty say are the advantages of
electronic resources for their research or
instruction? - More accessible
- Anytime, anywhere
- Multi-user access
- More usable
- Easy to search and access
- Easy to share
- Ability to manipulate, use in Blackboard or other
CMS - Ability to highlight, annotate, bookmark, etc.
- Easy to print/download
- Easy to save and archive
- Less expensive
- Saves shelf space
- Cost-effective
- Good for environment
18Advantages of e-books - students
- What are the top statements students indicate as
true for e-books? - Basically more accessible and more useable
- Environmentally friendly
- Anytime, anywhere access
- Easy to search and find info
- Easy to share
- Easy to store
- Good for quick reference
- Easy to browse
- Easy to use multiple documents at once
- Easy to organize
- Information is current
- Easy to print or photocopy
- Easy to cite
- Easy to use
- Clear graphics and images
19Features of e-books
- Which e-book features do students rate as very
important? - Searching 87
- Anytime access 86
- Off-campus access 82
- Multi-user access 81
- Downloading to laptop 80
- Copying and pasting 75
- Printing 75
- Zoom and scale 65
- Highlighting 62
- Automatic citations 56
- Ability to email text 55
- Book reviews 45
- Multimedia 44
- Ability to share notes 44
- Downloading to hand held device 42
- Collaborative tools 40
- Personal bookshelves 38
- Shared bookshelves 30
- Students selected very important, somewhat
important, or not important for each item.
20Perceived advantages of e-books
- When asked about the advantages of e-books, both
students and faculty indicated that e-books were - More accessible,
- Easier to search
- Easier to use online
- When asked about the advantages of print books,
students indicated that they were - Easier to read
- Easier to take notes to highlight
- Wide selection
- When asked about the advantages of print books,
faculty indicated that they were - Easier to read more portable
- Easier to use for my research
- Easier to access for my research
21Purchase drivers for librarians
- The panaceamake everything availablewell pay
for what we use - Faculty accounts established through
institutional budgeting processes - Faculty research and instruction usage defines
acquisition - Online tools are available for accessing,
organizing, integrating, and presenting
information resources
22Q A and contact details
- To request complimentary copies of the results,
please go to www.ebrary.com and look under
ebrary Spotlight. - Allen McKiel
- Dean of Hamersly Library
- Western Oregon University
- Email mckiela_at_wou.edu
- Tel 503-838-8886