1 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

2 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

3 HKIEd’s e-Book CollectionERALLOther Blackwell Reference Online EBrary Oxford Scholarship Online Springer Wiley Reference Works Apabi Chinese e-Books Books24x7 Gale Virtual Reference Library Naxos Spoken Word Library ORO (Premium), ABI Dissertation Others… Over 30,000 eBook titles

4 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)

5 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%)

6 Reasons % Strongly Agree % Agree % Neutral % Disagree % Strongly Disagree Available around the clock Read in different way Searchable Need special equipment Easy to access through the library network Easy navigation Enough electronic copies when I need them Easy to read Convenient to use How HKIEd users think about e-books… Q: Do you agree with the following comments on e-books? * These results have similarities with findings from Chu (2003)

7 “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”.

8 “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.

9 2. Find out usage pattern of e-books Q: Have you ever used the following e-books? (Apabi, Blackwell, Springer, GVRL, Wiley,…)

10 “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”.

11 “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%) …

12 3. E-books and their future Q: Do you think the Library should subscribe more e-books in the future?

13 “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.

14 “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”.

15 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

16 Future Challenges (2) Chinese e-Books need more development, e.g., academic publication in Taiwan Should be a market for this!

17 References 1. 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 Gibbons, S. (2001) E-books: Some Concerns and Surprises. Portal: Libraries and the Academy, 1 (2001), Heting Chu (2003). Electronic books: Viewpoints from users and potential users. Library Hi Tech. 21(3), Rowlands, I., Nicholas, D., Jamali, H. R., & Huntington, P. (2007). What do faculty and students really think about e-books? Aslib Proceedings. 59(6), Snowhill, L. E-books and their future in academic libraries: an overview. D-Lib Magazine, 7(7/8), July/August 2001.