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Shifting Patterns of User Engagement with Ebooks
Martha Sedgwick Senior Manager Online Products, SAGE@coffeepot
SAGE Online Products Los Angeles | London | New DelhiSingapore | Washington DC
2011 – Kindle Fire tablet released by
Amazon
2011 – Google eBookstore launches
2011 – Oxford Scholarship Online Re-
launch
2011 – iPad 2 Released by Apple
2010 – Cambridge Books Online
launches
2010 – iPad released by
Apple
2009 – Barnes & Noble release the Nook
2007 – Amazon releases
the Kindle
2004 – Google Books launches
2004 – first ink e-book reader
released, the Sony Libre
2003 – Oxford
Scholarship Online
launches
1997 – Palm releases first
PDA
1971 Project Gutenberg
kicks off and the ebook is
invented
2000 – T&F
ebook collection launches
Ebook availability amongst academic vendors has increased rapidly over the last decade
2011 – Proquest acquires Ebrary
2010 – EBSCO
acquires NetLibrary
1999 – NetLibrary
launches with 40 publishers
2006 – Springer launches ebook
collection with 10K titles
2006 – MyiLibrary acquired by
Ingram Digital
2003 - Google Books site Launched
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Libraries are the prime purchasers of ebooks for the academic market
Liverpool University =
200,000+
University of Stockholm =
200,000
Penn State University =
203,000
Duke University = 553,698
However, despite the high volume of purchases, studies have found that there is
still relatively low awareness of the existence of ebooks.
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Emergence of mobile reading devices
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● “I might use a mobile for reading a journal article if I’m running late. I’ve thought about getting a Kindle, but haven’t taken the plunge yet.”
● “I don’t use a mobile phone for academic purposes – I have an old-school phone and don’t have enough money to upgrade it.”
● “I use my cell phone just for personal, not for my research.”● “I have an iPhone and a couple of times I’ve bought stuff on
my iPhone for my work when I’ve been desperate.”● “I have an iPhone but I don’t use it for research, mostly for
email”● “I have an iPhone and an iPad and I’ve looked at journal
websites and articles on these devices, but I don’t actively use them for research, per se.”
Despite this growth, the proportion of use on mobile for academic purposes is still low
SAGE Online Products Los Angeles | London | New DelhiSingapore | Washington DC
So, what is the impact of all of this on our users?
SAGE Online Products Los Angeles | London | New DelhiSingapore | Washington DC
Friday 10.04am -
Living roomEbook: Family relationships
in middle childhood
Monday 9.45am -
Dining tableBook: How
children develop
Saturday 3.08pm -
Dining tableBook: How
children develop
Saturday 3.10pm -
Dining tableBook:
Cognitive psychology
Saturday 5.54pm -
Living roomBook: An
introduction to brain and
behavior
Sunday 9.50pm –
TrainBook:
Cognitive Psychology
Sun 9.40_Train
stationBook:
Cognitive psychology
Thursday 5.33 -
Living roomBook: The
memory keeper's daughter
Tuesday 2.30pm -
LibraryBook:
Cognitive Psychology
Tuesday 5.30 -
Library cafeBook: The
memory keeper's daughter
Tuesday 6.30 -
Living roomBook: How
children develop
Wednesday 1.24pm
Living roomBook:An
introdcution to brain
and behavior
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Give us one word that you would use to describe ebooks
SAGE Online Products Los Angeles | London | New DelhiSingapore | Washington DC
Handy
Practical
Search
QuickMiss Out
Annoying
Easier
Less
Useful
Convenient
Easy
Heresy
Scope User-Unfriendly
Frustrating Accessibl
e
Preconceptions
Cold
Unknown
Skip
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Core use of ebooks is for quick look ups and reference, or discovery purposes
● Abdullah & Gibb (2008) – 2 most popular reasons for using ebooks are: finding relative content and selective reading
● In our interviews, terms we hear associated to the use of ebooks include: “SKIM”, “PREVIEW”, “RE-READ”, “REFERENCE CHECKING”
SAGE Online Products Los Angeles | London | New DelhiSingapore | Washington DC
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
70.00%
80.00%
90.00%
Search facility Links through toother materials
that arereferenced in a
text
Keyword andrelated linksearching
Accessopportunities from
multiplegeographic
locations at anytime of the day
Useful to browseand discover
small samples ofcontent to read
Easy to printmaterials
Easy to link intoVirtual LearningEnvironments
(e.g. Blackboard,WebCT, Moodle)
Easy to read longtexts
Other
% s
ele
cti
on
Academic Researchers
Postgraduates
Undergraduates
What features do you value most in online academic products? (2008 survey)
SAGE Online Products Los Angeles | London | New DelhiSingapore | Washington DC
“I always read on paper. I’ve got a Mac and so when I find a paper I’m interested in I save the PDF within a project folder and then I’ll print it off and read it later.”Daniel, Lecturer, De Paul University, USA, 2008
“I use them to check references – I’ll type in a quote on Google and sometimes it throws up chapters of a book… If I want to buy a book [in print] I will always browse for a preview online.”Nina (PhD student, Education) 2011
“Ebooks are a bit like an added feature of print books. You can use them to search and find things, but then you ultimately want the print book to
read.”James, PhD student, University of York, 2011
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Printing and downloading is key
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Survey (2011)
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Therefore, tight DRM is a pain
“I hate one of the ebook sites because of the DRM restrictions to printing, and I don’t like reading on screen. The interface is very clunky and regularly crashes my browser.”James, PhD student, University of York, 2008
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There is a shift towards more comfort with online reading
“I use PDF downloads of ebooks constantly. We have copiers at AU that send PDFs to my email so I’m contantly scanning sections and chapters of books and then I search
through the PDFs. I read the PDFs online, I rarely print them.”
Kit, History, PhD, American University, 2011
‘A couple of times I’ve asked the library to buy a book and they’ve bought the eBook version… I read them at home… I can imagine a scenario where I might use my iPhone if I needed to… but my worry is that you would lose the book”Paul (PhD student, History) 2011
“I use PDF downloads of ebooks constantly. We have copiers at AU that send PDFs to my email so I’m contantly scanning sections and chapters of books and then I search
through the PDFs. I read the PDFs online, I rarely print them.”
Kit, History, PhD, American University, 2011
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Slide on publisher sites
The design of publisher ebook interfaces is adapting to these user needs
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SAGE Online Products Los Angeles | London | New DelhiSingapore | Washington DC
Supporting search and discovery through semantic linking
Source: Temis
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Concluding thoughts….
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Thank you!
Martha Sedgwick, Senior Manager, Online Products
Email: [email protected]: @coffeepot