User Expectation of e-Book
Development in an Education Library:
a Case Study of HKIEd
Kevin Hau / Cherrie Ip / Lewis Li
Hong Kong Institute of Education
1
Background


Provided teacher education in Hong Kong since 1939
April 1994: the Hong Kong Institute of Education
(HKIEd) was formally established through
amalgamation of teacher education colleges
Student and Staff (as at July 2007)



Students: 6336 total (FTE: 4202)
40.6% (1706) of total FTE are serving teachers
Academic Staff: 434
2
HKIEd’s e-Book Collection
ERALL
Blackwell
Reference Online
EBrary
Oxford
Scholarship Online
Springer
Wiley Reference Works
Other
Apabi
Chinese e-Books
Books24x7
Gale Virtual Reference Library
Naxos Spoken Word Library
ORO
(Premium), ABI Dissertation
Others…
Over 30,000 eBook titles
3
Key research areas of e-books in
academic libraries:
1.
How users think about e-books
(Chu, 2003)
2.
Find out usage pattern of e-books
(Anuradha, 2006; Rowlands, 2007)
3.
E-books and their future
(Gibbons, 2001; Snowhill, 2001)
4
How HKIEd studied these issues:
 Conduct survey on e-Books
(Mar/Apr 2008)
 Participants: HKIEd staff, students and
external members
 430 responses: Staff (26%), Student
(73%), Others (1%)
5
1. How HKIEd users think about e-books…
Q: Do you agree with the following comments on e-books?
Reasons
%
Strongly
Agree
%
Agree
%
Neutral
%
Disagree
%
Strongly
Disagree
Available around the clock
17.7
40.7
37.9
2.5
1.1
Read in different way
14.0
42.5
40.2
2.8
0.6
Searchable
11.6
38.5
39.4
9.1
1.4
Need special equipment
15.1
34.6
38.9
9.7
1.7
Easy to access through the
library network
12.4
35.7
41.8
9.2
0.9
Easy navigation
10.8
34.4
44.9
8.8
1.1
Enough electronic copies when I
need them
12.1
31.6
49.1
5.5
1.7
Easy to read
11.4
31.9
43.0
10.8
2.8
Convenient to use
11.4
21.7
43.9
18.2
4.8
* These results have similarities with findings from Chu (2003)
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“Useful but not as convenient as print
versions!”
Because …
 Gibbons (2001), reading e-books from a
screen is not comfortable as reading
printed books.
 Survey comments: “Easy to read a few
chapters. Not easy to finish reading the
whole e-book”; “It is more interesting to
hold and read a book”.
7
“Useful but not as convenient as print
versions!”
Because …
 75% prefer to order both format.
 The survey demonstrated that if both print
and electronic versions of a book exist,
there is a slightly marked preference for
print (15%) over electronic (10%).
 So HKIEd users still prefer print versions.
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2. Find out usage pattern of e-books
Q: Have you ever used the following e-books?
(Apabi, Blackwell, Springer, GVRL, Wiley,…)
Daily
3%
A few times a
week
13%
A few times a
year
40%
Once a month
21%
Once a week
10%
Once a
fortnight
13%
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“Infrequent Reading of e-books”
Possible reasons …
 According to Anuradha (2006): Titles not of
interests and limited number of titles
 Survey comments: “….. the books should cover
variety of subjects to cope with different user
needs.”; “Not enough Chinese e-Books”
 According to Rowlands (2007): Lack of
awareness.
 Survey comments: “Promote more”.
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“Infrequent Reading of e-books”
Other factors …
 The survey showed that users learn about
e-book from library website (61%),
recommended by professors (21%), never
heard about e-book (12.5%),
recommended by classmates (4.5%) …
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3. E-books and their future
Q: Do you think the Library should subscribe more e-books
in the future?
Should not
Subscribe to
subscribe to
fewer e-books
any e-book in
17%
the future?
2%
Subscribe to
more e-books
81%
12
“There is a substantial level of interest in
and use e-book!”
Because …
 Results showed (81%) users want the
library to subscribe to more e-books. Over
(90%) were satisfied with our e-book
services.
 HKIEd users show supportiveness of
making e-books viable over the long term
in the academic environment.
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“There is a substantial level of interest in and
use e-book!” (continued…)
Because …
 Survey comments: “The subjects should be
related to the core subject on education teaching
(such as different levels of teaching, curriculum,
education psychology, etc), and other vary
subjects to help strengthen the readers' subject
knowledge, such as business, IT, arts … ”
 Survey comments: “The library needs to build a
broader base as far as e-books are
concerned …”; “E-books are great! I use them as
my main resources of academic essays”.
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Future Challenges (1)




Make it easier to read e-Books for users.
Consider more up-to-date platforms (v’s “PDF”
style) ?
Acquire E- copies of the equivalent print versions
where usage is high, e.g., Course recommended
readings.
e-Reserve development aims to complement
existing collection to ensure high topic relevancy.
More promotion to raise awareness
15
Future Challenges (2)


Chinese e-Books need more
development, e.g., academic publication
in Taiwan
Should be a market for this!
16
References
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Anuradha, KT and Usha, HS (2006) Use of e-books in an
academic and research environment: a case study from the Indian
Institute of Science. Program: Electronic Library and Information
Systems 40(1), pp. 48-62.
Gibbons, S. (2001) E-books: Some Concerns and Surprises. Portal:
Libraries and the Academy, 1 (2001), 71-75.
Heting Chu (2003). Electronic books: Viewpoints from users and
potential users. Library Hi Tech. 21(3), 340-346.
Rowlands, I., Nicholas, D., Jamali, H. R., & Huntington, P. (2007).
What do faculty and students really think about e-books? Aslib
Proceedings. 59(6), 489-511.
Snowhill, L. E-books and their future in academic libraries: an
overview. D-Lib Magazine, 7(7/8), July/August 2001.
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