Title
Making e-books available through public libraries: Some user reactions
Abstract
This paper considers the results of an online questionnaire survey that collected user data on e-book collections held at Essex County Libraries over a two-year period between April 2004 and June 2006. The research was funded by the Laser Foundation, 1 and specifically considered e-book collections held on Personal Digital Assistant ( PDA) devices, as well as collections viewable on Personal Computers with Internet access. 2 Questionnaire responses from 58 individuals indicated clearly that marketing of e-book collections needs serious consideration, that certain genres were popular with users ( notably Science Fiction), and that the largest number of respondents were aged between 21 and 30. As we discuss, the findings of this questionnaire survey offer few insights into e-book usage that have not been reported in other research. However, what the findings do illustrate clearly is that publicity afforded to e-book and other electronic collections remains crucial. From perusal of the data, 47 of the 58 respondents found out about the e-book collections after browsing the website. Whilst this obviously indicates that the website is indeed useful, the fact that only nine respondents investigated the collections having seen publicity material tells another story.
Year
DOI
Venue
2008
10.1177/0961000607086619
JOURNAL OF LIBRARIANSHIP AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
Keywords
Field
DocType
electronic books,marketing of electronic books,public libraries
Electronic book,Sociology,Computer-assisted web interviewing,Publicity,Library science,Questionnaire,Internet access,Higher education,The Internet,Electronic publishing
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
40
1
0961-0006
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
2
0.43
2
Authors
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Cliff McKnight131260.87
james dearnley2254.04
Anne Morris320.43