Reports

In 2007 the JISC national e-books observatory project was set up to undertake market research to help e-book publishers, aggregators, libraries and funding bodies understand the behaviours of e-book users and to assess the impact of free at-the-point of use course text e-books on traditional print sales to students. The huge amount of empirical data gathered through the Observatory project will help all of us to take informed decisions based on real evidence rather than assumptions. The data is available for all to use and we hope that by sharing the data, we encourage further collaboration and the development of new ideas and solutions that meet the needs and expectations of users.

All reports are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales Licence. The following reports are available:

JISC national e-books observatory project: Key findings and recommendations
Final Report, November 2009

This is the final report of the Observatory project and includes key findings and recommendations for stakeholders. It brings together the data from the deep log analysis, the user surveys, the focus groups and the print and library circulation analysis.

Scholarly e-books usage and information seeking behaviour: a deep log analysis of MyiLibrary
CIBER, Final Report, November 2009

This report includes detailed data from the deep log analysis of the MyiLibrary platform that took place from September 2007 to December 2008. The deep log analysis looked at how users discovered, navigated through and used the 26 course text e-books that were made available on the MyiLibrary platform. In addition, the use of 10,000 other e-books on the MyiLibrary platform were analysed for comparison. There is an executive summary for quick reference that highlights findings on subject differences, reading times, searching, user locations etc.

Headline findings from the user surveys
CIBER Final Report, November 2009

This report provides an overview of the exit user survey undertaken in January 2009 and compares the key findings with the entrance user survey that took place in January 2008. The surveys explored user’s awareness, perceptions and attitudes towards e-books and course text e-books. Together these surveys received over 52,000 responses making them the biggest user survey on e-books ever undertaken in the world.

Findings from the first user survey
CIBER Final Report, April 2008

This report provides an overview of the findings from the first user survey undertaken in January 2008. The data gathered provides a benchmark against which the changes in user’s attitudes, perceptions and awareness of e-books can be measured. There were over 22,000 responses to this survey.

Analysis of the free text fields from the first user survey
CIBER, Final Report, May 2008

This report provides an analysis of the responses to two open questions in the entrance user survey. The first was ‘In your opinion, what were the biggest advantages that e‐book offered, compared with a printed book?’. This elicited 11,624 responses. The second question was ‘Is there anything that you want to add regarding course texts, print or electronic, or about your university library?’ In total 4809 comments were received to this question.

E-book use by academic staff and students in UK universities: focus groups report
Information Automation Limited, Final Report, November 2009

This report provides an analysis of the focus groups held with students and academic staff at 8 universities. The focus groups aimed to gain a deeper understanding of the ways in which the JISC e-books and e-textbooks in general were used by students and staff. They focused on work patterns; attitudes; involvement in e-textbook selection (academics only); the means by which e-books are located trough the library and institution; the means by which content is discovered in the e-textbook; added-value features; the effects of screen design on reading; impacts on learning and teaching; users’ views on promotion of e-textbooks; and views on the purchase of textbooks. This is a long report with many insightful quotes.

E-book use by academic staff and students in UK universities: focus groups report
Information Automation Limited, Headlines Report, November 2009

This report presents the headline findings from the student and staff focus groups.

E-book collection management in UK university libraries: focus groups report
Information Automation Limited, Final Report, November 2009

This report provides an analysis of the focus groups held with librarians at 8 universities. The focus groups investigated the attitudes and work of library staff responsible for establishing, managing and promoting the e-book collections. They focused on: selection; licensing and pricing models; cataloguing and MARC records; ways of accessing e-books; promotion; evaluation; and the platform interface through which the JISC e-books were available. This is a long report with many insightful quotes.

E-book collection management in UK university libraries: focus groups report
Information Automation Limited, Headlines Report, November 2009

This report presents the headline findings from the librarian focus groups.

Assessing the impact of electronic course texts on print sales and library hard copy circulation
CIBER, Final Report, November 2009

This report looks at the impact of free at the point of use course text e-books licensed for the Observatory project on publisher’s retail sales and library circulation data. It is an extremely interesting report that uses transparent data.

Establishing methods for future studies on the impact of e-books
Information Automation Limited, Final Report, November 2009

This report looks at possible areas of research that would be beneficial based on the findings of the focus groups and the user surveys.

All reports are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales Licence

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