Digital Commons Network^™

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

Galadriel Chilton

Comparing Electronic Vs. Print Book Preferences Between Students In The Social Sciences, The Arts And Stem, Lee Cummings, Anne Larrivee, Leslie Vega

Anne Larrivee

The purpose of this study was to determine if there were any distinct differences in e-book usage habits among students in the social sciences, technical fields and the arts. To complete this study, students from three different disciplinary areas were surveyed. The same nine questions were posed to each student group, with slight modifications to some questions based on the discipline.The results of this study show that students in each discipline have a preference for convenience and accessibility, whether material is print or electronic. Some more unique characteristics between disciplines include the percentage of students using books and frequency of …

Textbooks In Academic Libraries, Christine L. Ferguson

Cris Ferguson

Assessing The Shared Usage Of Collaboratively Acquired Ebooks Within The Borrow Direct Network, Adriana Popescu, Douglas Mcgee

Douglas McGee

Established in 1999, Borrow Direct (BD) is a partnership of nine independent U.S. universities and the Center for Research Libraries providing expedited delivery of print materials. As such, it has facilitated the delivery of nearly two million items to patrons at these institutions. The rapid emergence of e-books has posed a challenge to this successful resource sharing venture as member institutions have expanded their acquisition of this type of content. How does one “borrow” an ebook from another institution and avoid the need to purchase one’s own copy? Different models are emerging to tackle this issue. Under the aegis of …

A Library And The Disciplines: A Collaborative Project Assessing The Impact Of Ebooks And Mobile Devices On Student Learning, Barbara C. Glackin, Roy Rodenhiser, Brooke Herzog

Roy Rodenhiser

With the proliferation of technology usage, it is essential to understand the effect of implementation of technology in the academic setting. Specifically, this article examines the impact of eBooks and mobile devices on student learning. A pilot study was conducted with three areas of interest. The first question of interest found that owning or having access to two or more mobile devices significantly increased respondents' frequency of accessing eBooks. The second question examined the pros and cons of using mobile devices. Accessibility and cost savings were found as pros; while functionality and pedagogy were reported as drawbacks to mobile device …

Good Enough: The New Face Of Reference, Doug Way, Colleen Lyon

Doug Way

College students today flock to Wikipedia in droves, while at the same time academic libraries continue to pour time and money into print reference collections that are rarely used and take huge amounts of our libraries’ limited space. While libraries have responded to space and access concerns by turning to electronic books, title-by-title selection is a time-consuming affair for a collection that sees low use. In this session we will examine the factors that have led to the point where libraries need to reexamine how they collect and provide access to reference sources. Through a content analysis of reference transcripts …