JISC Collections 01 May 2015 | Project Board Meeting | Slide 1

JISC Collections Slide 2 What do the findings mean? Lorraine Estelle, CEO, JISC Collections

JISC Collections The largest study of its kind! Slide 3 –36 course text e-books freely available to all UK HE –Over 48,000 responses to benchmarking surveys carried out in January 2008 and in January 2009 –Raw server logs have been analysed to see exactly how users discover, navigate and use the e-books –Case studies including focus groups held at eight universities –Library circulation and print sales data has been analysed

JISC Collections Use patterns Use of e-books over 24 hours: 25% of use between 6pm and 8am Use of e-books over the year: Sharp peaks and deep declines

JISC Collections Digital Rights Management We need unlimited concurrency – the spikes are not robots but many students with the same deadline! DRM systems need to recognise that use of e-books is not spread evenly through the year but is concentrated and in line with the academic timetable and at certain times of the day We are happy to pay to have the e-books available all year – but pricing must recognise that use is not even

JISC Collections Where is the use coming from? 31% of off campus use illustrates how important e-books are for home study – so we have got to get the access right Students told us in the survey the most important benefit of the e- book is 24/7 access

JISC Collections User behaviour This shows non-linear use – perhaps a different type of behaviour from the print world?

JISC Collections Users are not raiding the cookie jar! 13 minute sessions, 8 pages per session Page view time of 22.8 seconds 85% of users spending less than 1 minute on a page Dip in and out of e-books, only using sections of it, non linear use E-books are being used to scan through or reference for short periods of time Probably indicates that if a user wants to read in a consistent, frequent or linear way they will still buy the print – and that e-books are for ‘just in time’ or remote use

JISC Collections Discoverability What makes e-books successful is having the MARC records in the OPAC so that students can discover them along with other material on their reading lists. The DLA and the survey data supports this. Getting the MARC records right was one of the biggest challenge of this project!

JISC Collections Why buy? Why do librarians want to buy e-books? –Take the pressure off short loan collections –To manage the high peaks of use –To provide for their off campus users whether they be distance learners, students at home or on a placement –Equality of access Librarians want e-books to CO- EXIST and SUPPLEMENT their print ‘I think it’s mainly the issue of availability – it depends on providing the extra access for short periods of time….so that you are providing supplementary access for things that are on reading lists – or in short loan; so everyone is getting access to them’

JISC Collections Business Models The data (including the sales data) indicates that making available course text e-books free at the point of use is not a threat to print sales revenue There has been no negative impact on the sales of hard copies and no negative impact on the use of print copies in the short loan collection. Students are using e-books in addition to the print they bought or borrowed! A new pricing model for e-books must reflect the use of e-books is different, the uneven use, user behaviour The e-book: A threat or the chance to grow a new market?

JISC Collections A Fair Formula Enable publishers to grow this market and enable libraries to provide a consistent and essential service to students, particularly those students that require remote access A fair and sustainable metric Transparent modelling looking at the cost to a publisher, the actual use and the benefits to a library Could be applied to a number of access models

JISC Collections Slide 13 Thank You!