Does Format Matter? Comparing the Usage of E-Books and P-Books

Charleston ConferenceNovember 9, 2012

Michael Levine-ClarkChristopher C. Brown

Methodology

Duke University Press

• Added October 2008• Loaded MARC records December 2008• Purchase all e/p• 1,378 e-books

– Frontlist approximately 120 per year– Backlist

• 2,175 p-books• 841 in both formats

The Data

• Gathered circ data – Through December 2008– Each subsequent December (2009-2011)– Cumulative

• Compiled e-book use data– At end of each year, 2009-2011– For each year

Apples and Oranges

• pBook checkouts– Undergrad: 3 weeks– Grad: 10 weeks– Faculty: 1 year– Potentially many uses per checkout, and some

when deciding to checkout

• eBook use– One time in the book is one use

About Discovery and Data

• Discovery through catalog records• Data merger issues:

– Title variations– ISBN complexities– Multi-volume issues

E and P Typically Pattern Together in Results

Classic Catalog

Encore (next-gen) Catalog

Data Difficulties: Title VariationsCatalog Record Vendor Record

Series used with title The Sri Lanka reader : history, culture, politics / John Clifford Holt, ed.

World Readers : Sri Lanka Reader : History, Culture, Politics

Series used with title Julia Child's The French chef / Dana Polan.

Spin Offs : Julia Child's The French Chef

Word renderings Present tense : rock & roll and culture

Present Tense : Rock and Roll and Culture

Spaces Percussion : drumming, beating, striking

Percussion: Drumming, Beating, Striking

Vendors and catalogers don’t necessarily agree on title formation. This makes matching on title impossible.

More Title VariationsCatalog Record Vendor Record

Gremlin characters (diacritics)

Affective communities : anticolonial thought, fin-de-si ¿cle ├ radicalism, and the politics of friendship

Affective communities: anticolonial thought, Fin-De-SiFcle radicalism, and the politics of friendship

Presence/Absence of Subtitles

The life and traditions of the Red man

Life and Traditions of the Red Man : A rediscovered treasure of Native American Literature

Title Discrepencies A coincidence of desires : anthropology, queer studies, Indonesia

Coincidence of Desire : Anthropology, Queer Studies, Indonesia

Translated Titles Desencuentros de la modernidad en América Latina. English, Divergent modernities : culture and politics in nineteenth-century Latin America

Divergent Modernities : Culture and Politics in Nineteenth-Century Latin America

Data Difficulties: Multiple ISBNs

Data Difficulties: ISBN 10? ISBN 13?

Data Difficulties: ISBN Irregularities

Note the ISBN10 with ISBN 13, the parentheses, and the multiple ISBN numbers

Data Solution: Create an ISBN 9

ISBN 9 eliminates the ISBN 13 – 978 prefix and the final check-digit, creating a useable match-point, in cases where the electronic and print versions agree on base ISBN.

Data Difficulties: Too Many Sources

• Usage reports include only titles that are actually used– Needed to pull in unused titles from elsewhere

• Different formats

Data Methodology using Microsoft Access

• Get annual use stats of e-books from vendor• Get master list of e-titles from vendor. • Derive ISBN9 for each list for proper overlay• Overlay annual use stats onto master list of e-books• Get circ stats for print books from ILS• Derive master list of all print titles from ILS• Derive ISBN 9 for each p title.• Overlay annual circ stats onto master list of p-books• Merge circ and use data together

Data Conclusions

• Microsoft Access for overlays; Microsoft Excel for analysis

• Overlay on title is nearly impossible• Better standards are needed – a single ISBN,

please!• Deriving an “ISBN9” was the only way to get

anywhere, but even this was far from perfect

Usage

eBooks

• COUNTER– 502 titles used (36.7%)– 27,640 uses

• 55.1 per title used• 20.2 per title

– 866 titles not used• User Sessions

– 503 titles used– 2,585 sessions

• 5.1 per title used– 874 titles not used

eBooks

• Pages Viewed– Average: 49.4– Highest: 1,933– Median: 11

• Pages Printed– 56 titles– Average: 34.4 pages– Highest: 289– Median: 18

pBooks

• 1,435 titles used (66.0%)

• 4,196 checkouts (2,727 before Dec 2008)– 2.9 per title used– 1.9 per title

• 740 titles not used

Most Used eBooks (COUNTER)• Poor People’s Politics: Peronist Survival Networks and

the Legacy of Evita (2001) – 2,174 uses (all in 2011)– 4 checkouts (1 before Dec 2008, 1 in 2010, 2 in 2011) – 101 user sessions (#5)– 190 pages printed (37%)

• Museum Frictions: Public Cultures/Global Transformations (2006)– 1,003 uses (824 in 2010)– 4 checkouts (2 before Dec 2008, 1 in 2010, 1 in 2011)– 15 User Sessions (#24)– 0 pages printed

Most Used eBooks, User Sessions• Date Which Will Live (2003)

– 185 User Sessions (all in 2011)– #20 on COUNTER list (305 uses)– 2 checkouts– 50 pages printed (16%)

• Politics of Memory in Postwar Europe (2006)– 158 User Sessions (155 in 2011)– #25 on COUNTER list (256 uses)– 8 checkouts– 74 pages printed (18%)

Most Used pBooks• Argumentative Turn in Policy Analysis and

Planning (1993)– 37 checkouts (36 before Dec 2008)– 9 uses of the e-version– 2 user sessions, 0 pages printed

• Culture, Power, Place: Explorations in Critical Anthropology (1997)– 24 checkouts (21 before Dec 2008)– 14 uses of the e-version (11 in Dec 2008)– 5 user sessions, 0 pages printed

Dual Format Use

• 325 titles used in both formats– 20,619 e-book uses

• 63.5 per title used– 1,874 user sessions

• 5.8 per title used– 1,229 p-book checkouts (743 before Dec 2008)

• 3.8 per title used– 40 titles with pages printed (out of 56)

• 36.9 pages per title used– 56.3 pages viewed on average

P Used, E Not

• 364 titles– 952 checkouts

• 2.4 per title used

E Used, P Not

• 177 titles• 7,021 uses

– 39.7 per title

• 711 user sessions• 6,556 pages viewed

– 36.8 per title

• 16 titles with pages printed – 28.1 per title

E-Book Usage

E-Book Usage

P-Book Usage

How Closely Are P/E Usage Linked?

Increased Checkouts, 2008-2011

• For titles available at the start of the project (Dec 2008), how many more checkouts were there by Dec 2011?

• Was that increase linked in any way to e-usage?

• Was it linked in any way to type of e-usage?

Increased Checkouts 2008-2011

• 1,057 titles with increased checkouts• 707 had no e-availability• 192 also had e-use

– 75.6 uses per title – 7.2 user sessions per title– 65.4 pages viewed per title

• 158 had no e-use

Observations

• Use of E doesn’t seem to lead to use of P• Use of P doesn’t seem to lead to use of E• If both formats are used,

– they are both used at a higher rate than average– They have greater meaningful use as e-books

• Pages viewed• User sessions

• These patterns even more significant for e/p usage when p usage increased over time

Thoughts

• If dual format usage is higher by all measures, does this mean that people’s preference is for good content, not format?

Further Questions

• Might there be differences – By subject?– By date?

• How does discovery play in?

Thank You