Tina ChrzastowskiLynn WileyJean-Louise ZancanellaUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Incorporating Ebooks into Humanities Scholarship:

Results from a Combined Survey and Use Study at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

(A LibValue Study)

What about Humanities Ebook Users?

Are ebooks ready for the Humanities and are Humanities scholars ready for

ebooks? While many ebooks for the sciences have been purchased at Illinois,

fewer titles for the humanities are available. One reason is limited new content

availability by title (vs. a package or subject purchase which can be too pricey

or requires collaborative buying) but another was a perception that researchers

preferred hard copy text. This was the subject of a recent research project.

We developed and implemented two different studies to determine how

humanists are currently using ebooks and their opinions concerning ebooks in

their disciplines:

1. Patron-Driven Acquisition (PDA) via the ebrary platform.

2. A survey of 162 humanities faculty and graduate students.

Purchase on Demand for Humanities• Obtained the full STLs listing of over 250,000 records from ebook vendor

• STLS?-use a book for 24 hours 10-15% list price : multi-user and multi sessions per loan with a session= link/open/view/print download a chapter with a purchase automatic at a third loan

• Reduced the record set to 8000 by focusing on core academic titles in 6 Humanities disciplines (Art/Art History Architecture Classics History Music Religion/Theology). Used LC to sort the subjects. Kept only core academic publishers, majority University Presses and purposely overlapped these ebooks with titles with already owned in print to provide options for the user. Publications dates were from 2000 to 2013.

• Records were loaded into our catalog database in November and stayed in for about 6 months: in that time we had 41 titles that went to purchase and 490 short loans and spent $6,000. Buying all would at a minimum over $30,000. All 6 subject disciplines saw use. Majority were University Press titles.

• We were notified of each use within 24 hours and checked to see if we had the print and if it was available

Availability Status of Title at Time of Use

527 items: 21% not owned in print. 79% were owned in print and of those, 33% were available to the researcher to be checked out.

Humanities Ebook Survey April 2013

• IRB approval received March 2013 to conduct an online survey

• The survey included over 30 questions about E vs. P book preferences and use and also led participants through a ebook search, access and use in their discipline and asked two open ended questions on users’ opinions of ebooks.

• Emails were sent to faculty and graduate students in the six humanities disciplines inviting them to fill out the survey, matching the subject areas to the ebrary study:

Art/Art History HistoryArchitecture MusicClassics Religion/Theology

• 162 Respondents; survey closed after one month by May 1, 2013

Survey results?

• Research and use of online resources? Majority use Ejournals for 50% of their research needs but few use ebooks at that rate. And while they expect ebooks to grow, they expect to still work with print five years out from now. They do however expect that ebooks will also be easier to use over time

• Problems? devices, inconsistent download capabilities, navigation problems, resolution issues, image clarity or simply not available, problems teaching to text, note taking limits

• Enjoyed? Loved searching within text, easy access, convenience and overwhelming agreed ebooks were perfectly acceptable when time or availability precluded any other option.

• Their priorities for more ebook use were: make more titles available this way already owned in print and add NEW books in this format. Fix the restrictions i.e. downloading and printing as well as image rights (don’t release a book as an eformat w/out images!)

• Qualitative comments were long and substantial and fun. As in wow I like books or sorry I love the feel, smell and whole sensory experience of the print

• We learned a lot and so did the participants

• Next up is same methodology for Social Sciences and Sciences and then perhaps discussion on what the Library may do to best support use of ebooks (devices, notes, outreach etc.)

thanks