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Library and Information Science

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Selected Works

2016

E-books

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Library E-Book Platforms Are Broken: Let's Fix Them, Galadriel Chilton, Joelle Thomas Oct 2016

Library E-Book Platforms Are Broken: Let's Fix Them, Galadriel Chilton, Joelle Thomas

Galadriel Chilton

E-books promise users convenience and accessibility, but library e-book platforms contain so many barriers to use and access that patrons often turn away in frustration. In addition, aggregators’ e-book platforms often include intrusive, onerous digital rights management (DRM) restrictions. The traditional solution of DRM-free e-books are generally only available only in large and expensive publisher packages. One approach to solving these problems is an evidence-based selection of e-books program; it not only offers access to hundreds of DRM-free, unlimited simultaneous-user e-books that are integrated with similar e-journal content, but also includes an agreement that libraries will only purchase titles with …


The Changing Values Of Digital Legacies: E-Books And The Challenges Of Data Mobility And The Perceived Value Of Books, Derani Nathasha Dissanayake, David M. Cook Oct 2016

The Changing Values Of Digital Legacies: E-Books And The Challenges Of Data Mobility And The Perceived Value Of Books, Derani Nathasha Dissanayake, David M. Cook

Dr. David M Cook

Digital Legacies in the form of e-Books represent a challenge for those who make direct comparisons to in-print paper books.  Digital legacies come in a variety of segments that are characterised in terms of their perceived value. Digital objects retain higher values when they are easily transferred from one person to another. The value of e-books is dependent upon the ability to access and re-read each e-book, and to make a comparison between an e-book and a paper copy of the same book. A qualitative study of 32 adults over the age of 65 in Australia revealed the difficulty in …


Reading Habits Across Disciplines: A Study Of Student E-Book Use, Lee Cummings, Anne Larrivee, Leslie Vega Oct 2016

Reading Habits Across Disciplines: A Study Of Student E-Book Use, Lee Cummings, Anne Larrivee, Leslie Vega

Anne Larrivee

No abstract provided.


Not On The Same Page: Undergraduates’ Information Retrieval In Electronic And Print Books, Selinda Adelle Berg, Kristin Hoffmann, Diane Dawson Jul 2016

Not On The Same Page: Undergraduates’ Information Retrieval In Electronic And Print Books, Selinda Adelle Berg, Kristin Hoffmann, Diane Dawson

Selinda Adelle Berg

Academic libraries are increasingly collecting e-books, but little research has investigated how students use e-books compared to print texts. This study used a prompted think-aloud method to gain an understanding of the information retrieval behavior of students in both formats. Qualitative analysis identified themes that will inform instruction and collection practices.


The Library Is Our Lab: The Case For Print Books In An Academic Library, Fran Gray, Peggy Ellis Jul 2016

The Library Is Our Lab: The Case For Print Books In An Academic Library, Fran Gray, Peggy Ellis

Fran Gray

Humanities researchers consider the library to be their laboratory, and its print collections their essential research equipment. In spite of anecdotal evidence that both students and faculty in the Humanities prefer print materials over e-books, academic libraries are allocating a steadily increasing proportion of their acquisitions budgets toward the purchase of e-books across all disciplines. What is the impact of this trend on the work of these researchers? At Western University in London, Ontario, we surveyed faculty members and graduate students in the Arts and Humanities faculty and those in the History department to gain a better understanding of their …


Conventional Wisdom Or Faulty Logic? The Recent Literature On Monograph Use And E-Book Acquisition, Amy Fry Jan 2016

Conventional Wisdom Or Faulty Logic? The Recent Literature On Monograph Use And E-Book Acquisition, Amy Fry

Amy Fry

The idea that academic libraries acquire a great many books that are never used, and that this is because traditional collection development – i.e., professional librarians purchasing books based on subject expertise and local knowledge of student and faculty needs and interests – is ineffective, has been repeated frequently during the last decade. This claim has been used as justification to change collection practices and to bolster ideas about new organizational models for libraries and their work. A closer look at the literature, however, reveals that the data being cited to support this claim has been communicated, for the most …