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McLaughlin Library www.lib.uoguelph.ca Seeing the whole elephant in the room: a holistic approach to ebooks Robin Bergart and Pamela Jacobs Reinventing Libraries: Reinventing Assessment June 6, 2014

Seeing the whole elephant in the room a holistic approach to ebooks

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Ebooks have been part of the academic library landscape for several years but students and faculty have not fully embraced them the same way they have adopted other online sources such as ejournals, databases, and e-reference works. The current state of scholarly ebooks poses challenges for library staff, students and scholars alike. Library staff face complex decisions in selection and acquisitions, and wrestle with challenges around preservation, sharing, promotion, discovery and access. Library users face a dizzying array of interfaces and use restrictions and are still learning how to best incorporate them into their studies and research. We decided to tackle all of these problems and questions holistically and address the entire ebooks lifecycle by drawing on staff expertise in selections, acquisitions, electronic resource management, copyright, licensing, and user experience design. We used evidence wherever we could find it to create an ebooks strategy for our library—a strategy that encompasses all aspects of the ebook from selection to discovery and access. In this session, we will outline the qualitative and quantitative research that informed our strategy document and that now informs our approach to ebook management. In particular we will highlight some of the more innovative qualitative research on ebook adoption that is beginning to emerge including CUNY’s own forthcoming publication on student reading practices, and our own original research investigations. About us: Robin Bergart is a User Experience Librarian at the University of Guelph. She has an MA in Religious Studies, a Master of Jewish Education and an MISt from the University of Toronto. She is starting all over again having just enrolled in a BA program in Sociology. Pamela Jacobs (MSc, MLIS) is Acting Head, Information Resources at the University of Guelph Library. Pam has a BSc and MSc in Botany from the University of Guelph and an MLIS from UIUC. Her work focuses on evidence-based decision making in collection development, management and analysis.

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Page 1: Seeing the whole elephant in the room a holistic approach to ebooks

McLaughlin Library ● www.lib.uoguelph.ca

Seeing the whole elephant in the room: a holistic approach to ebooks

Robin Bergart and Pamela Jacobs

Reinventing Libraries: Reinventing Assessment June 6, 2014

Page 2: Seeing the whole elephant in the room a holistic approach to ebooks

McLaughlin Library ● www.lib.uoguelph.ca

Who are we?

Robin BergartUser Experience Librarian

Pamela Jacobs Acting Head, Information Resources

@pamelajacobs

Image Copyright © 2007 Jeremiah Blatz

Image Copyright © 2007 Peter H. Wrege

Page 3: Seeing the whole elephant in the room a holistic approach to ebooks

McLaughlin Library ● www.lib.uoguelph.ca

“You are not just buying content. You are buying content, software, licenses, DRM

and an ongoing relationship with a vendor” – Sue Polanka (2012)

Why do we need an ebook strategy?

Page 4: Seeing the whole elephant in the room a holistic approach to ebooks

McLaughlin Library ● www.lib.uoguelph.ca

Ebook Strategy Working Group• Pam Jacobs • Robin Bergart• Linda Da Maren• Linda Day

• Jennifer Easter• Alan Gale• Heather Martin• Judy Wanner

Image Copyright © 2012 Benh Lieu Song

Page 5: Seeing the whole elephant in the room a holistic approach to ebooks

McLaughlin Library ● www.lib.uoguelph.ca

Project Scope

• Selection and acquisition• Electronic resource management (ERM)• Discovery and user experience (UX)• Preservation• Evaluation

Page 6: Seeing the whole elephant in the room a holistic approach to ebooks

McLaughlin Library ● www.lib.uoguelph.ca

Goals

• Increase access and usability• Make more informed selection decisions • Create more efficient workflows• Provide feedback to vendors • Ensure digital preservation of ebooks• Improve communication with our users

about ebooks

Page 7: Seeing the whole elephant in the room a holistic approach to ebooks

McLaughlin Library ● www.lib.uoguelph.ca

Methods

• Current State• External Scan• Critical Issues• Recommendations

Page 8: Seeing the whole elephant in the room a holistic approach to ebooks

McLaughlin Library ● www.lib.uoguelph.ca

Areas Investigated

• Selection• Budget• Acquisitions• Licensing

• Discovery• Accessibility• User experience• Monitoring & review

Page 9: Seeing the whole elephant in the room a holistic approach to ebooks

McLaughlin Library ● www.lib.uoguelph.ca

FINDINGS

Page 10: Seeing the whole elephant in the room a holistic approach to ebooks

McLaughlin Library ● www.lib.uoguelph.ca

Ebooks available at UG

• Over 400,000 titles• Over 65 platforms• Individual titles to packages via consortia• Purchase and subscriptions• Various business models• Aggregators to publisher direct

Page 11: Seeing the whole elephant in the room a holistic approach to ebooks

McLaughlin Library ● www.lib.uoguelph.ca

Management of ebooks

• Workflow and records management challenges for large ebook collections

• MARC records from publishers• Inaccurate, poor quality, wrong titles• Results in unacceptable delay in user

access

Page 12: Seeing the whole elephant in the room a holistic approach to ebooks

McLaughlin Library ● www.lib.uoguelph.ca

Analyzing use

• Metrics are problematic• As collections grow, usage grows• Accurate title counts needed• Access restrictions affect use• Discoverability affects use

Page 13: Seeing the whole elephant in the room a holistic approach to ebooks

McLaughlin Library ● www.lib.uoguelph.ca

USER EXPERIENCE STUDY

Page 14: Seeing the whole elephant in the room a holistic approach to ebooks

McLaughlin Library ● www.lib.uoguelph.ca

UX Study Questions• Are our students choosing ebooks for their

academic work? • What are the perceived advantages and

disadvantages of using ebooks?• Are ebooks meeting our students’ needs

and expectations?• What can the library do to improve our

students’ relationship with ebooks?

Page 15: Seeing the whole elephant in the room a holistic approach to ebooks

McLaughlin Library ● www.lib.uoguelph.ca

Methods

• Recruitment• Pre-study survey• Diaries • Interviews

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McLaughlin Library ● www.lib.uoguelph.ca

“[Both] have their place. I like having the book right in front of me and being able to follow along with my finger and not having to share the computer screen [with my notes], but for accessibility and availability...and it’s obviously very cheap...and it also means I don’t have to track it down from the library, they definitely both have their merits.”

- MSc student

Page 17: Seeing the whole elephant in the room a holistic approach to ebooks

McLaughlin Library ● www.lib.uoguelph.ca

Findings

• Personal comfort• Availability• Portability• Intended use• Cost

Page 18: Seeing the whole elephant in the room a holistic approach to ebooks

McLaughlin Library ● www.lib.uoguelph.ca

Personal Comfort

“Magnifying the print was a godsend during this time because my eyes were strained and tired from dry eyes.”

- 3rd year Psychology Student

Page 19: Seeing the whole elephant in the room a holistic approach to ebooks

McLaughlin Library ● www.lib.uoguelph.ca

Availability

“The most important feature is to be able to access the books without having to get them out of the library and you can look at a book and scan through it to see if it’s what you want.”

- MSc Psychology Student

Page 20: Seeing the whole elephant in the room a holistic approach to ebooks

McLaughlin Library ● www.lib.uoguelph.ca

Portability

“I like how it goes everywhere with you, it’s super light. I already carry around a laptop and I don’t want to have to carry around an additional 30 lb textbook.”

- 3rd year Animal Science Student

Page 21: Seeing the whole elephant in the room a holistic approach to ebooks

McLaughlin Library ● www.lib.uoguelph.ca

Intended use“Ebooks are cool, but I still prefer print books for academic stuff. With journal articles, it’s OK, but they’re maybe 12-14 pages, but ebooks are over 100 pages so I won’t say I love them. I like them, but I don’t love them. I prefer print.”

- Spanish Studies MA Student

Page 22: Seeing the whole elephant in the room a holistic approach to ebooks

McLaughlin Library ● www.lib.uoguelph.ca

Cost

“It’s easier to share [an ebook] among friends. We’ll logon to the same account any only one of us has to buy it. I don’t know if that’s legal. That’s the truth. I don’t know if we’re supposed to do it but we do.”

- 3rd year Animal Science Student

Page 23: Seeing the whole elephant in the room a holistic approach to ebooks

McLaughlin Library ● www.lib.uoguelph.ca

RECOMMENDATIONS & CONCLUSIONS

Page 24: Seeing the whole elephant in the room a holistic approach to ebooks

McLaughlin Library ● www.lib.uoguelph.ca

Recommendations

• Improve records management workflows• Improve discovery • Improve resource sharing of ebooks• Create support tools for use of ebooks• Investigate preservation services for

ebooks

Page 25: Seeing the whole elephant in the room a holistic approach to ebooks

McLaughlin Library ● www.lib.uoguelph.ca

Recommendations

• Select ebooks with the fewest barriers • Advocate for fewer DRM restrictions and

more accessible formats and functionality• Increase faculty outreach• Investigate e-textbooks

Page 26: Seeing the whole elephant in the room a holistic approach to ebooks

McLaughlin Library ● www.lib.uoguelph.ca

“I think the study was really interesting and it’s nice to see that the library is interested in what the students like, because technology is a big part of our lives. I didn’t think [the Library] would do studies on ebooks and would just assume technology is the way to go.”

- 1st year Psychology Student

Page 27: Seeing the whole elephant in the room a holistic approach to ebooks

McLaughlin Library ● www.lib.uoguelph.ca

We welcome your questions…

[email protected]

[email protected]

Image copyright © 2014 Jan Willemsen

http://www.lib.uoguelph.ca