E-books In Libraries Research Articles

Assignment of Subject Headings and Classification Codes to e-books in South American University Libraries

The integration of e-books into university libraries has allowed for interesting analysis and discussions in recent years about user preferences between printed and electronic books, the difficulties and challenges librarians face in their incorporation into libraries, among other aspects. However, with this work, the main objective is to analyze the changes that are occurring in South American university libraries regarding the processes of subject heading assignment and classification codes with the massive incorporation of e-books, as well as to understand librarians’ perceptions of these changes. To achieve this, we developed and distributed a web-based questionnaire consisting of twenty-four questions to a total of 1,175 university libraries in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay, from which we received 123 responses (10.5%). Among other findings, it is concluded that indexing and classification processes are losing relevance in librarians’ activities, the quality of metadata provided by publishers does not seem to be a significant factor for librarians, and furthermore, the data obtained does not clearly indicate a paradigm shift in relation to indexing and classification processes.

Print Book and e-Book Collections in Academic Libraries in Malawi

Arrival of e-books on the scene has had a significant effect on the collection development activities of many academic libraries. Whilst some libraries have made the radical decision to ditch print books in favor of e-books, others are cautiously navigating the new terrain by acquiring both. The current study used the survey research design to study the collection development trends of print books and e-books in academic libraries in Malawi. The study found that academic libraries in Malawi are acquiring both print books and e-books. The trend has resulted from collection development decisions, practices, and budgetary constraints.

Free Via Library (FVL) Etextbooks

This paper discusses an etextbook initiative which an academic library adopted to support affordable learning. After providing an overview of how textbook costs affect university students, the paper details the library’s etextbook initiative and how the library works both proactively (before/during the course design phase) and reactively (after textbook selection) to identify library etextbooks which courses can use in place of student purchased textbooks. The paper then reviews data demonstrating the use of library etextbooks in courses and the cost savings to students resulting from replacing student purchased textbooks with library etextbooks. The paper concludes by discussing problems and issues the library has encountered using library ebooks as textbooks.

STUDENTS’ AWARENESS AND UTILISATION OF ELECTRONIC BOOKS IN UiTM CAWANGAN PULAU PINANG

To provide open access to electronic resources, academic libraries spend millions each year. Free e-books may not keep students interested in and using them, despite the fact that they are available for free. In fact, the librarians at Perpustakaan Tun Abdul Razak (PTAR) found that students did not fully utilize the e-books available. Thus, they requested a survey to be conducted for students at Universiti Teknologi MARA, Cawangan Pulau Pinang (UiTMCPP) on their e-book awareness and usage. The goal of this study is to identify the reasons why students use and avoid using e-books. More than 200 students at UiTMCPP completed this survey about how they use e-books for learning, how they search for them, what devices that they use to obtain them, and how they read and utilise them. Results show that more than half of the students prefer e-books because they are free and easy to use, while others prefer paper books because they are more convenient. Most students also are aware of and use the library's e-book collection to its fullest, according to the survey results.

Analisis Pemanfaatan E-book Sebagai Bahan Penunjang Pembelajaran Oleh Pengguna Perpustakaan SMAN 1 Kedungwaru Tulungagung

Current technological advances lead us to rapid development. One of the developments that occurred was in the library. The information needs of library users are facilitated by the existence of e-books which can be used as learning support. . E-books are library materials in digital form which are considered as library materials that can be accessed whenever and wherever we need them. This research was conducted to find out how the use of e-book library materials as a support for learning at SMAN 1 Kedungwaru. The research method used in this study is qualitative and presented in a descriptive form using observation, interviews and documentation. Data analysis was carried out by collecting data, reducing data, presenting data, and drawing conclusions/verification. The results of the study show that students at SMAN 1 Kedungwaru have used e-books as a learning support. They use e-books as reading material to add insight. This is considered a practical matter to obtain learning materials, especially during a pandemic. The existence of this e-book also has a big influence on student academic achievement. E-books are also considered to make it easier for students to fulfill academic information. The results of this study also show that there are still students who have not been able to make full use of e-books. What's more, the collections provided are still limited, so students choose to look for library materials in physical form. However, librarians try their best to add library materials and carry out promotions so that students can make the most of e-books. E-book library materials can be put to good use and are also effective in utilizing the facilities provided. The e-book is used as a reference in supporting the learning process. The suggestion of this research is the need for encouragement or motivation so that users can make the most of e-books.

School Library eBook Providers and Spanish Language Equity:

The goal of this study is to revisit and contrast the original data from “School Library eBook Providers and Spanish Language Equity: An Analysis of eBook Collections Available to School Libraries.” Our original study examined the eBooks in Spanish provided by vendors of library resources to school libraries to determine if there are equitable offerings of eBooks in Spanish relative to the Spanish speaking school population in the United States. The processes in that study were replicated where possible and expanded upon for contextual understanding. Results indicate an increase in the Spanish language eBook options available in this replication study.

Do you love them now? Use and non-use of academic ebooks a decade later

This survey of graduate students' and faculty's use and non-use of ebooks is a follow-up to the data captured in 2011 from the same mid-sized public university in southeast Texas. In addition to providing a change comparison of faculty and graduate students' ebooks usage over the past decade, the study also aims to contribute to the growing ebook literature examining faculty and graduate students' perception and use of ebooks for different academic activities. Survey results showed that while the proportion of respondents who are library ebook users had increased significantly over the past decade, both ebook users and non-users' attitude towards e- and print books remained consistent. Most ebook users appreciated features such as keyword searches and copy and pasting, but the majority also valued the option to print out pages and chapters. Respondents' format preferences also shifted based on their academic needs, although some of the feature limitations that prompted some users to switch from or avoid library ebooks were caused by DRM restrictions that could be removed by publishers. The findings have implications beyond the institution for academic library ebook acquisition and communication with local user populations. Other marketing and future research implications of the findings are also discussed.

Repurposed collection marketing and visibility: using LibGuide gallery boxes as virtual library bookshelves

Purpose This paper aims to provide a reflection on innovating and repurposing collection development and marketing strategy, particularly for eBooks in libraries. Design/methodology/approach This paper provides a general review where previous research papers on the phenomenon of the study have been consulted. Findings The findings indicate that there is a lack of awareness of eBooks and marketing, and virtual bookshelves in the form of LibGuide gallery boxes are identified as a solution in promoting these resources. Originality/value This is a valuable contribution that sheds insight on the usage of LibGuide gallery boxes as virtual bookshelves in marketing library resources, particularly eBooks.

A Note on Digital Humanities Research on the Reception of Matsuo Bashō in Modern Japan ：Crossing Borders between Human Reading and Machine Reading

In this essay, I provided a brief report and perspective on digital humanities research related to the study of modern Japanese literature. First, I reviewed the recent increase in the availability of digital full-text databases, including Aozora Bunko, the National Diet Library’s Next Digital Library, Maruzen eBook Library, and Google Books. Next, as an example of digital humanities-based literary studies using the Next Digital Library, I attempted to study the reception of Matsuo Bashō between 1868 and 1945. Specifically, I searched the Next Digital Library—which currently has about 280,000 modern books available for full-text search—for Bashō’s <i>haiku</i> and found over a thousand works by him, although the total number differs depending on the counting method. I researched the <i>haikus</i> individually for the full-text data in books published between 1868 and 1945, using the computer language Python to automate the search and retrieve the results. Consequently, the top 30 most frequently cited works were identified. For the top five, the number of mentions by year of publication was also investigated. Results between the human- and computer-based reception studies were compared, and the strengths and weaknesses in understanding the context were highlighted. As for future prospects, I discussed the importance of human-computer collaboration, the necessity for combining large-scale full-text data sets with other databases, and the possibilities for structuring text using TEI and other methods.

Problematika pemanfaatan perpustakaan digital Pustabiblia bagi dosen IAIN Salatiga

Introduction. The digital ebook library Pustabiblia is an ebook collection service application belonging to the IAIN Salatiga library that can be accessed by lecturers to support their information needs. This study aims to understand about the existence of Pustabiblia ebook services and the factor of the lack of access for lecturers to library ebooks owned by IAIN Salatiga.Methodology. This research uses a qualitative descriptive approach from the results of interview, observations and documentation. The informants of this research are FEBI lecturers who are members and are active members of the ebook Pustabiblia.Results and discussion. The results of this study indicate that FEBI lecturers are aware of the existence of ebook library services through librarians, WhatsApp group, website, and library social media. The factors for the lack of access to Pustabiblia services by FEBI lecturers are technical and non-technical factors. Technical factors are including alignment of collections with teaching/syllabic materials, system integration, internet network stability, internet quota limitations, storage capacity, application compatibility, and account footprint, while non-technical factors are the lack of socialization and promotion of the Pustabiblia ebook service, busy work, and not being the main source of reference.Conclusion. FEBI Lecturers have already known ebooks from various sources, but in accessing them there are still technical and non-technical obstacles, the lack of socialization and promotion which is the most dominant factor in all interview data. The recommendations are aligning ebooks with the needs of teaching materials, socializing, developing and integrating ebook applications, and intensively communicating with lecturers

School Library eBook Providers and Spanish Language Equity

The goal of this study is to revisit and contrast the original data from a previous publication entitled, “School Library eBook Providers and Spanish Language Equity: An Analysis of eBook Collections Available to School Libraries.” The original study examined the collections of eBooks in Spanish provided by vendors of library resources to school libraries to determine if there are equitable offerings of eBooks in Spanish relative to the Spanish-speaking school population in the United States. The processes in that study were replicated where possible and expanded upon for shared understanding.

E-BOOKS UTILISATION AND STUDENTS' ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN UNIVERSITIES IN LAGOS STATE, NIGERIA: IMPLICATION FOR EDUCATIONAL PLANNERS

This study examined e-books utilisations and students' academic achievement in universities in Lagos State: implication for educational planners. With the use of descriptive survey research methodologies, this study was driven by three research questions and three null hypotheses. All six of Lagos State's traditional universities make up the study's population. Three institutions were chosen using a straightforward random sampling method. Additionally, 150 final-year students from each of the studied institutions were chosen using a practical selection approach, resulting in 450 respondents from the three universities chosen for the study. A well-structured questionnaire titled "E-Book Utilisation and Students' Academic Achievement in Universities" was used to gather data (IEBSAAU). The test-retest reliability approach was used to validate the instrument, and it was determined to be reliable with a reliability coefficient of 0.79. The statistical technique Chi-Square was used to gather data. The findings showed significant relationship in the use of electronic books with X2 = (4, N = 450) = 246.462, P =.000; a significant relationship between computer literacy with X2 = (4, N = 450) = 206.431 , P =.000; a significant relationship between students ‘perception on the use of electronic books for academic progress with X2 = (4, N = 450) = 262.109 , P =.000 and student academic achievement. It is recommended that: E-book library should be set up and maintained in every university of study to boost interest and enlightens students and teachers on the importance of e-books to teaching and learning.

Implementing Personalized Reading Plans with an E-Book Library to Support First-Grade Students’ Reading Engagement and Comprehension

Implementing Personalized Reading Plans with an E-Book Library to Support First-Grade Students’ Reading Engagement and Comprehension

How the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated an e-book crisis and the #ebooksos campaign for reform

This article sets out the problems with the e-book market and the origins and work to date of #ebooksos, a librarian-led campaign for a fairer e-book market for libraries. While many of the issues identified predated the Covid-19 pandemic, the rapid pivot to remote teaching and learning and the subsequent change in working cultures it precipitated brought these issues to a head. The article is primarily about the academic context as the authors are academic librarians, but the e-book library crisis applies to all sectors and the #ebooksos campaign aims to represent them all. While it is recognized that change will take time, as with related change in areas such as open access and the movement of journals from print to online, this underlines, rather than diminishes, the need for the campaign to keep highlighting the problems and to work with colleagues and stakeholders to deliver an approach to e-books that is equitable and sustainable. The #ebooksos campaign is in its infancy and thus this article presents a snapshot of a work in progress at the vanguard of librarianship and information work.

Gamifying piracy: functions and users of the Z-library

PurposeThis paper aims to show how an illegal repository of literature, the Z-library, relates to and influences its users and how this relation is unique due to the illegal nature of the platform. The paper utilizes the idea of gamification to exemplify how to motivate users to contribute to a large shadow library in order to create the “world's largest e-book library,” sans “librarians.”Design/methodology/approachThe study makes use of an ethnographic approach. It interrogates the functions of the website through intensive use—a close reading of sorts. The data provide a foundation for illustrating how illegal text repositories function at a surface level and how their design appeals to their user-base.FindingsThe paper provides a thorough and non-biased overview of how a “black open access” or “shadow library” site provides its users with pirated literature. It suggests that the lynchpin sustaining their functionality is a gamification of piracy designed to motivate a fragmented collective of individuals who work primarily for personal reward, rather than altruistic goals.Research limitations/implicationsDue to the design of the study, the findings are not universal or applicable to all illegal repositories of text. Readers and researchers are encouraged to apply the concept introduced here to other cases.Social implicationsThis paper includes implication on the perception of literature piracy, how pirated literature is distributed and who performs the labor required to sustain illicit text repositories.Originality/valueThis paper provides a novel conceptual basis to study literature piracy.

Study on the Win-Win Plan of Library E-book Service on the Controversial Issues with Publishers

본 연구는 최근 출판계와 도서관계 간에 쟁점이 되어온 도서관 전자책 서비스에 대한 현황 및 출판계의 인식을 파악하고자 하였다. 이를 위해, 출판생태계 내에서 도서관 전자책 서비스와 관련한 쟁점을 파악하고 분석하였으며, 인터뷰 방법을 활용하여 전자책 서비스 관련 쟁점에 대한 출판계의 인식을 파악함으로써 도서관 전자책 서비스를 위한 상생 방안연구를 진행하였다. 그 결과, 도서관 전자책 서비스에 대한 기본적인 인식의 차이, 출판사 규모 및 장르별 인식 차이, 공공대출권에 대한 논의 필요성, 출판계-도서관계 상생을 위한 협력, 양질의 콘텐츠 확보를 위한 정부의 도서 관련 재원 마련 확대 및 도서관 정책의 변화 필요성이 제시되었다. 이 연구는 다양한 분석을 통해 향후 관련 연구를 위한 기초 자료를 제공하였으며, 연구의 한계와 제언을 제시하였다.

Why does library holding format really matter for book impact assessment?: Modelling the relationship between citations and altmetrics with print and electronic holdings

Scholarly books are important outputs in some fields and their many publishing formats seem to introduce opportunities to scrutinize their impact. As there is a growing interest in the publisher-enforced massive collection of ebooks in libraries in the past decade, this study examined how this influences the relationship that library print holdings (LPH), library electronic holdings (LEH) and total library holdings (TLH) have with other metrics. As a follow up study to a previous research on OCLC library holdings, the relationship between library holdings and twelve other metrics including Scopus Citations, Google Books (GB) Citations, Goodreads engagements, and Altmetric indicators were examined for 119,794 Scopus-indexed book titles across 26 fields. Present study confirms the weak correlation levels observed between TLH and other indicators in previous studies and contributes additional evidence that print holdings can moderately reflect research, educational and online impact of books consistently more efficient than eholdings and total holdings across fields and over time, except for Mendeley for which eholdings slightly prevailed. Regression models indicated that along with other dimensions, Google Books Citations frequently best explained LPH (in 14 out of 26 fields), whereas Goodreads User counts were weak, but the best predictor of both LEH and TLH (in 15 fields out of 26), suggesting significant association of eholdings with online uptake of books. Overall, findings suggest that inclusion of eholdings overrides the more impactful counts of print holdings in Total Library Holdings metric and therefore undermines the statistical results, whilst print holdings has both statistically and theoretically promising underlying assumptions for prediction of impact of books and shows greater promise than the general Library Holding metric for book impact assessment. Thus, there is a need for a distinction between print and electronic holding counts to be made, otherwise total library holding data need to be interpreted with caution.

Current Status and Challenges of Library E-Book Service

Current Status and Challenges of Library E-Book Service

Discussion of Students' E-book Reading Intention With the Integration of Theory of Planned Behavior and Technology Acceptance Model.

The emergence of e-books with the characteristics of easy access and reading any time anywhere is a subject of debate in academia. Topics include the use of e-books in libraries, their use in support teaching, new possibilities for reading activities, potential uses for library archives, and the motivation and intention of e-book users. Students at Guilin University of Technology participated in a survey. Of the 300 copies of the questionnaire distributed, 263 valid copies were returned, a retrieval rate of 88%. The research results show that (1) Usability and reading need are the key factors in e-book usage. Usability refers to convenient keyword searches, portability, and any time reading. E-books are considered to make searching and reading large amounts of data easier. (2) E-books are not restricted to time and space so that the overall reading quantity is increasing. Readers become accustomed to reading e-books, and the quality of their digital reading is gradually enhanced. (3) Students should complete e-book use courses offered by libraries to enhance their familiarity with e-books and their use of e-book software, thereby enhancing postgraduate student readers' e-book information literacy. The results of the research prompt suggestions to enhance the promotion of reading and e-book information to encourage student readers' e-book reading intention.

Effective Factors in Adopting Electronic Books E books by Students in Electronic Era

The current study was conducted with the aim of identifying effective factors in students’ utilise of e-books by combining the Expectancy Disconfirmation Theory and Technology Acceptance Model. The current study is a descriptive-analytical study using confirmatory factor analysis. The study population included students of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. A randomised sampling method was used from the available population, including 140 participants selected as the study population, and the research instrument was a questionnaire constructed based on the Expectance Disconfirmation Theory (EDT) and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The findings indicate that factors of the TAM, that is, perceived usefulness (PU) (=β0.64) and perceived ease of use (PEOU) (=β 0.42) have a positive and significant effect on student’s use of e-books. Other findings indicate that the suggested model is able to depict over 47 per cent of effective factors in using e-books by students. Thus, the combination of TAM and EDT models is appropriate for depicting students’ behavior in using e-book. The results of this study clearly identified the effective factors in student’s use of e-books, including PU, PEOU, confirmation, and user satisfaction. The results of current study can be beneficial for the implementation of e-books in libraries and educational settings.