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The Rise and Rise of E-books:A Case Study from the
University of Portsmouth, UK
Anne Worden
Faculty Librarian:
Humanities and Social Sciences
November 2012
Background
• UoP is a post-1992 university with c20,000 FTEs
• Trial of networked e-books began in 2004
• Number of bought-in e-books has increased from 15,000 to around 90,000
• Books from Credo Reference, DawsonEra, ebrary, MyiLibrary, Oxford Scholarship Online
• Since 2005 use of e-books at Portsmouth has increased by well over 1000%
• UoP has the highest use of e-books in the UK (SCONUL Strategic Planning Data 2010-11)
E-book Section Requests
0
1000000
2000000
3000000
4000000
5000000
6000000
2004/5
2005/6
2006/7
2007/8
2008/9
2009/10
2010/11
2011/12
E-book Survey Participants
• Spring 2009 survey
• 903 Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) & 208 Technology students
• Spring 2012 survey
• 1118 HSS & 101 Technology students
646 female 18-23 yr old HSS students
322 male 18-23 yr old HSS students
28 HSS students aged 24-29
41 HSS students aged 30+
81 HSS part-time mature students from School of Education
Do you use e-books for every assignment?
Percentage saying “Yes”
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
HSS Male HSS Female HSS Part-time 2012
Technology
2009
2012
How useful are e-books for your course?
Percentages by age and course group
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Not at all
Some use
Quite useful
Very useful
How useful are e-books for your course?
Percentages for female HSS students
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Not at all useful
Some use
Quite useful
Very useful
How useful are e-books for your course?
Percentages for male HSS students
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Not at all useful
Some use
Quite useful
Very useful
Why do you use e-books?
Percentages choosing each option
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Convenient Easy to search Print taken Prefer online Other
HSS 09
HSS 12
HSS Part-time
Tech 09
Tech 12
Student Views – Advantages 1
So useful especially if it’s a book everyone on the course needsand there are not enough hard copies
Languages Yr 4
It is easy to bookmark pages and highlight so that you can go back to
research easily
English Lit Yr 3
It saves trouble of going into the library and carrying the book back home
MSc Computing
Really convenient
to useLanguages Yr 1
Student Views – Advantages 2
E-books are easier to flick through to find the right chapters relevant to assignment
Languages Yr 2
The word searchis very useful and often saves time reading irrelevant pagesSociology Yr 3
Copy and paste saves a lot of time when using
quotes in any essay
Languages Yr 2
You don’t have to pay fines!!
Languages Yr 4
Brilliant, life saver!Extremely useful and easy to use
English Lit Yr 3
Given a choice, I would prefer to use:
In 2009 59% of HSS & 44% of Tech students responding preferred to use a printed book. In 2012 it was 51% HSS and 35% Tech.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
E-book Print No preference It depends
HSS 09
HSS 12
HSS Part-time
Tech 09
Tech 12
Given a choice, I would prefer to use:
Percentages for female HSS students
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
E-book
No preference
It depends
Given a choice, I would prefer to use:
Percentages for male HSS students
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
E-book
No preference
It depends
Discriminating consumers
• For reading a novel, I would have a printed version, but for research and other I would use an e-book English Literature Yr 1
• Prefer printed books for long articles, e-book for short references English Literature Yr 2
• For reading I prefer printed copies. For extracting quotes, e-books are better Politics Yr 1
• Large books are better to read from paper copy - foreign language sources are easier to read from paper copy Languages Yr 2
• Whether it’s for pleasure or research Eng Lit Yr 1
Top 10 UoP e-books accessed in 2011
• 70,131 Sage dictionary of criminology
• 34,669 Biosocial Criminology: New Directions In Theory
• 26,254 Contemporary Leadership Theories
• 20,857 Future Savvy: Identifying Trends to Make Better Decisions & Manage Uncertainty
• 19,464 Constitutional and Administrative Law
• 19,099 Labour Relations in the Global Fast-Food Industry
• 18,009 How to Price: A Guide to Pricing Techniques and Yield Management
• 17,205 Doing Your Research Project: A Guide for First-Time Researchers in Education
• 17,123 Introduction to Early Modern English
• 15,174 Afghanistan: How the West Lost Its Way
Why is use so high at Portsmouth?Environmental factors
• Sheer number of e-books available (& on library catalogue)
• Increased no. of students but lack of space and money to increase no. of multiple copies
• Significant number of distance learners
Why is use so high at Portsmouth?Student factors
• Students value convenience of e-books
• E-books give fair access to all, regardless of how late they leave it to look
• Word searching tools & copy+paste assist students who are short of time
• For many students finding books in a physical library is difficult – e-books particularly benefit these students
• Enthusiastic take-up by Humanities & Social Science students
Why is use so high at Portsmouth?What’s happening on the ground
• Promotion of e-books by lecturers & deliberate inclusion as key weekly reading on reading lists– Strong engagement across Humanities & Social Sciences
• Demonstration of e-books by librarians– Hands-on workshops a part of Study Skills units
• Systematic checking of reading lists for e-book matches
• Buying e-books which match weekly reservation requests– Algerian War book bought just before Easter reached
3081 section requests in 21 days
– European Revolutions 1848 book bought just before Christmas had 17099 section requests in January 2012
Top student concerns re e-books
• More e-books should be made available“Would be even more useful if there was more available”
Languages Yr 1
• Downloading to Kindles etc should be possible“Would like to be able to download to Kindle for all e-
books” Computing Yr 2
“They’re great – provided I can read them on any device I own” Computing Yr 1
• Moving through pages should be easier“If the page turning system were made easier it’d be
great” American Studies Yr 1
• Find reading on-screen uncomfortable“Sometimes they hurt my eyes to read” Criminol Yr 2
“I don’t like reading text on a computer screen” Computing Yr 1
The final word…