Abstract
Learning more about when and why medical students, faculty, and clinical staff use e-books, as opposed to print books, is an expanding area of research for health sciences librarians. Several studies have highlighted the heavy use of health sciences titles in campus e-book collections [1–5] and the book format preferences of medical and other health sciences students [2, 6, 7]. A recent case study by Shurtz and von Isenburg is one of the first to explore e-book use in both health sciences educational and clinical settings [8]. As of June 2010, The Ohio State University (OSU) Prior Health Sciences Library offered more than 6,000 health and life sciences e-books. E-book usage has increased every year driven by Core25 Books, a browsable e-book promotions tool developed at the Prior Library, the ability to link to e-book chapters via the online course management system, and the distribution of the latest in mobile device technologies by OSU to incoming health sciences students and residents. During recent patron-driven e-book selection projects conducted at OSU, medical and life sciences books ranked at the top of subjects selected. Even with the growing emphasis on e-books at OSU, many questions remained about format usability and customer preferences. This exploratory study proposed to: (1) identify the book format preferences of customers in education, research, and patient care settings of an academic health sciences center; (2) discover factors that influence customer format selection; and (3) offer suggestions to librarians involved in the selection and delivery of health sciences books.
Highlights
Learning more about when and why medical students, faculty, and clinical staff use e-books, as opposed to print books, is an expanding area of research for health sciences librarians
A convenience sample of sixteen participants from Ohio State University (OSU)—two faculty members from the college of medicine, two faculty members from the college of nursing, four nurses, four medical residents, and four medical students—were recruited via email communications to campus email discussion lists asking for volunteers to participate in an e-book study in early– mid 2009
The email indicated that the print books used in the study as well as gift cards would be offered as incentives
Summary
Learning more about when and why medical students, faculty, and clinical staff use e-books, as opposed to print books, is an expanding area of research for health sciences librarians. Several studies have highlighted the heavy use of health sciences titles in campus e-book collections [1,2,3,4,5] and the book format preferences of medical and other health sciences students [2, 6, 7]. A recent case study by Shurtz and von Isenburg is one of the first to explore e-book use in both health sciences educational and clinical settings [8]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
