Shelburne (2009)

Shelburne, W. (2009). E-book usage in an academic library: User attitudes and behaviors. Library Collections, Acquisitions, & Technical Services, 33(2/3), 59-72. Retrieved October 22, 2011, from Library Literature & Information Science database. doi:10.1016/j.lcats.2009.04.002

Regarding the trajectory of e-book use in academic libraries, Shelburne confirms the picture that has emerged from the articles I have already read:

"After a disappointing beginning and a quiet time in between, in the last few years a rebirth has occurred with new products and services for libraries offering robust access models and presentation options" (p. 59).

Given the date of her article, it's a good beginning point for my lit review. Her own lit review of materials published before her article cites only seven articles (p. 60).

Shelburne's description of the e-book situation at the University of Illinois-Urbana at the time of her writing provides an interesting benchmark in the evolution of e-book usage in academic libraries:

• In early 2009 they had 292,000 e-book titles in the catalog.
• They came from a number of distributes; she names six and "others."
• Some titles were in the "federated" search system; it seems others were not but it's not clear to me what the alternative was.
• The library didn't have an "official" (p. 60) policy for e-book acquisition at that point. They had subscriptions in some subject areas.
• The usage rate grew quickly: "This includes 3992 chapter downloads from August 2006 through December 2006, 26,675 for 2007, and 82,622 for 2008, and, finally, 10,737 in January 2009" (p. 60).

The survey reported in this study took place between April 24 and May 4, 2008. 47,000 students, faculty, and staff received email invitations to take the survey. 1,547 responded (3 percent). Demographics of respondents:

"40% of the total respondent group identified themselves as undergraduate students, 37% as graduate or doctoral students, and 11% as professors or assistant professors (faculty)" (p. 61).

42% mathematics and science; 27% social sciences; 20% humanities.

Survey showed that 60% of the faculty, 60% of graduate students, and 55.5% of the undergraduates had used e-books. The reasons given for not using them include:

• Didn't need to use them: 18% of the 41% who hadn't used e-books
• Don't like to read on screen: 15%
• Don't know how to find them: 10%
• Prefer print: 7%
• Couldn't find titles in their area of need: 5%
• Only use e-journals: 3%

 "Eighty-six percent of those who indicated that they use e-books want to use them more and 85% of those who have used ebooks categorized them as 'useful'” (p. 62)

"Advantages to e-books were described as 'instant, desktop access (27%), ability to keyword search (25%), access from anywhere (17%), portability (15%), and environmentally better (7%)" (p. 62). [end quotation mark omitted in original]

Disadvantages cited by those who use e-books (as opposed to those who don't that were noted above):

"The primary disadvantages, according to the survey respondents, to e-books were difficulties in reading from the screen (33%), navigation issues (10%), and problems related to locating materials and searching in general (8%). Ten percent noted Digital Rights Management (DRM) as a problem and 14% noted problems relative to Internet access or technical difficulties such as needing special readers or the difficulties in trying to decipher poorly scanned copies" (p. 63).

Another very interesting question/response: Survey asked respondents to predict their future reading in terms of whether they expected to be reading e-books or print books. The answers were pretty consistent across the three categories of faculty, grad students, and undergrad students. 11 to 11.5% predicted they would be reading mostly e-books, 24 to 28.5% predicted mostly print books, and the remainder thought it would be some combination.

Conclusion:

"Clearly if libraries make e-books available to their users they will be used. The usage statistics show this to be true. The next few years will be an exciting time in the world of e-books" (p. 65).

My thoughts
I suspect that 10 years from now many more than 11% of university people will be reading mostly e-books.

Keep in mind that the study does not seem to include users response to being able to read e-books on e-reader devices other than laptop and desktop computers. There are references to downloading books, but not to downloading them on Kindles or similar devices. So, even before the advent of the latter, this research indicated substantial interest in e-books in an academic setting.