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The purpose of this paper is to present the third of three inter‐related experiments investigating the use and usability of e‐books in Higher Education based on experiments conducted at the University of Strathclyde. This study has looked in greater detail at user interactions with e‐books for reference purposes by focusing on searching and browsing tasks using three search tools: back‐of the‐book index (BoBI), table of contents (ToC) and full text search (FTS).

This study was carried out by subject‐specific users and using a between‐subjects approach. The target population was MSc and research students in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences, at the University of Strathclyde and involved a total of 45 responses.

The study found that a BoBI was more efficient compared to a ToC and FTS tool for finding information in an e‐book environment. A BoBI was found to perform the best for accurately finding relevant content in e‐books. The usability evaluation also found that a BoBI was more useful compared to a ToC for finding information in an e‐book environment.

The study was focused only on the usability of e‐books, and in particular on retrieval performance, user satisfaction and preferences regarding BoBI, ToC and FTS, and not on other features such as the user interface. The e‐book usability evaluation was constrained in so far as the e‐books used were: non‐fiction; in the domain of information retrieval; e‐books that already had BoBIs with hyperlinks from the BoBI to the text; e‐books that had ToCs with hyperlinks; e‐books that had FTS tools; and e‐books that were available in PDF format.

The study is important in gaining a better understanding of the retrieval performance of three search tools (BoBI, ToC and FTS) for browsing for relevant, and searching for specific, information in e‐books. This will be of value for designing better e‐books and access systems.

The strengths and novelty of this study are the methodology that was used, the comprehensive inter‐comparison of tools, and the size of the population. The findings have supported empirically – through an assessment of the performances of BoBIs and ToCs – the need for an enhanced library catalogue system in order to improve users’ browsing and searching capabilities for relevant book content.

Over the past decade, as the electronic book (e-book) collection continues to grow, Columbia University Libraries has been gathering information to develop policies related to e-book acquisition, discovery, and access. The purpose of this paper is to investigate users’ e-book search behavior and information needs across different disciplines.

The research method utilizes text data from two sources: users’ e-book search queries that were entered into the libraries discovery tool called CLIO and e-book title words provided by the Counting Online Usage of Networked Electronic Resources (COUNTER) usage reports. The analysis involves identifying and quantifying certain words from users’ search queries with the purpose of examining the contexts within which these words were used.

The prominence of topical words such as “history,” “social,” and “politics” in the list was an interesting reflection on the kinds of works users were looking for, as were the terms “handbook,” “guide,” and “manual.” The high frequency of these words imply that users were searching for broad topics, reference works, or other collections of instructions, all of which are intended to provide ready reference.

Running search queries and e-book title words through a text analysis tool revealed new ideas related to what types of materials users search for and use. Text analysis of search terms and title words provided insight into the nature of e-book use, including broad topic (e.g. history), academic level of use (e.g. introductory), and genre/type (e.g. reference). While it is challenging to deduce reader intent from word frequency analysis, as text data remain widely open for interpretation, the methodology has significant strengths that drive us to continue to use in future studies.

While there are frequently quoted articles about the revenue in e‐books over the last two years there is no regular statistical information about the amount of e‐books being published. This article attempts to fill this gap.

The paper states the total number of commercially available English‐speaking e‐books in the US‐market and reviews the growth of the publishing‐activities over the last 20 years. Finally, the paper sets the growth of the publishing activities in the e‐book‐market in relation to the developments in the hardcover‐market. The data about the English‐speaking publications was obtained from the book trade directory Global Books In Print Online. The data about the German‐speaking publications was gathered from the author's own survey.

There are at least 115,000 commercial English‐speaking e‐book‐editions offered in the US‐market. There is an increase of an average of 20 per cent a year in the production of e‐books over the last 20 years. In relation to the total amount of hardcover‐editions the total number of e‐book‐titles run up to 9 per cent. In comparison to Germany the USA is at the forefront of the e‐book‐market. About 5,000 German‐speaking e‐book‐titles were published, which runs up to 1 per cent of the total amount of hardcover editions.

The low number of e‐books published is one of the central problems of the e‐book‐market. As there is no other data available yet this article provides the reader with the information needed to assess the situation.

The purpose of this paper is to describe how an e‐books project was set up at the University of Worcester Information and Learning Services with the aim of improving user access to the range of textbook materials available.

Details of the background and circumstances of the University and the effect of these on the process undertaken by the e‐books project group are described. The selection of an e‐books provider, MyiLibrary, and subsequent ordering, cataloguing and promotion activities are outlined.

This paper outlines the importance of tailoring the approach to e‐books acquisition to the individual institution. It is found that authentication is a major issue and that for e‐books packages to be successful, technical problems need to be kept to a minimum.

Examples to assist others in setting up e‐books provision are given. Technical difficulties and the range of titles available are both impediments to providing a full e‐books service.

E‐books appear to provide greater access and flexibility to library users. Information and Learning Services fully intends to extend the range of e‐books available to students. This paper looks at the practicalities of setting up and expanding such a service.

This paper aims to share the successful experiences and suggestions from the 2007 Chinese e‐books consortium.

A survey of the participant libraries of the 2007 Chinese e‐books consortium was conducted. Survey results were analyzed.

The consortium improved the Chinese collections with perpetual ownership, and demonstrated the bargaining power that exists through a consortium. Most participants would consider joining the consortium in the future.

Since the 2007 Chinese e‐books consortium has only just been completed, the usage statistics have not been compiled. It will be interesting to see how readers adapt to the Chinese e‐books in the future.

The results have practical implications for the operation of library consortia.

This study provides the latest opinions and suggestions from the consortium participants, which can be valuable to those who are interested in initiating new library consortia. The study results can also be of value to librarians who are considering joining any library consortia.

This paper describes how groups of authors may create electronic books about the knowledge area of their interest by means of unsupervised collaborative work. For this task we propose a Web‐based groupware system that allows building Web sites that can be considered as electronic books. In these Web sites we can find in a structured way the relevant knowledge about an area or topic. The system allows the creation of e‐books in the Web, in an asynchronous and distributed way, and without the need of an editor for managing the task. This is possible through a knowledge crystallisation process supported by virtual communities of experts. Currently, there are several active e‐books, which have been created by groups of students at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Examples include the operating systems e‐book and the uncertain reasoning e‐book and these are described.

Purpose – The purpose of the study was to understand if / how making e-books can facilitate digital literacy skills among teacher candidates.

Design – The research design was a qualitative case study. Data were collected from the student’s e-book, student’s e-book reflective commentary, and questionnaire as well as course reflection. Multimodality and the technological, pedagogical content knowledge (CK) provided the theoretical framework.

Findings – The findings of this qualitative case study indicate that making e-books do facilitate the acquisition of digital literacy and technological pedagogical content knowledge among teacher candidates. In addition, the project promoted transmediation and differentiation of instruction. It facilitated divergent thinking and knowledge of instructional design as well as the affordances and constraints of multimodal tools.

Practical Implications – This study contributes to the literature on e-books and their role in digital literacy development among teacher candidates. The study supports the need to provide teachers with the opportunity for inquiry-oriented and design-based projects that enable them to be knowledge generators. Teachers should be allowed to experiment with digital and multimodal tools, and in the process, create opportunities for transmediation and differentiation of instruction for their students.

Although the functional benefits of e-books have been discussed in the emerging literature on the e-reader platform, the hedonic/emotional aspects of e-book usage have not been explored. This study aims to explore the impact that e-readers have on consumers’ connections with books. Relying on self-concept theory and possessions as the extended self, the authors address the following two questions: What are the hedonic differences between e-books and printed books, and, if the functional benefits of e-books are so compelling, then why do some people still use printed books?

The researchers pursue a qualitative design through the use of semi-structured interviews, with a combination of base questions and follow-up questions tailored to the individual respondent.

The results reveal six primary themes: convenience, change, community, collection, connection and children. Within each, functional benefits are identified, confirming prior literature on these benefits, and hedonic/emotional themes emerge, revealing that e-readers are capable of changing consumers’ connections with books. Namely, while e-books offer functional benefits over printed books, consumers feel less connected to books read using an e-reader platform and prefer to purchase the printed versions of books that hold special meanings for them. These findings align with self-concept theory and indicate that printed books are an extension of the self, one that cannot be completely replaced by e-books.

This research adds to the emerging literature on e-books by demonstrating that e-readers have emotional implications for consumers as components of the self-concept/extended self. Prior literature has focused solely on the functional benefits associated with e-books but has not directly addressed the role of books in the self-concept.

This paper aims to assess the usability of electronic books (e‐books) and paper books (p‐books) with objective measures, including user comprehension, eye fatigue, and perception.

A total of 56 sixth‐year public school students participated in this study. This paper was conducted in the following order: pre‐CFF measurement, p‐/e‐book reading, post‐CFF measurement, quiz, and questionnaire. A standard CFF device, a computer with a monitor for reading e‐books, p‐books, desks, and chairs were provided.

This paper found that there is a significant “book effect” on quiz scores; compared to e‐books, p‐books appear to enable better reading comprehension. Regarding eye fatigue, students had significantly greater eye fatigue after reading e‐books than after reading p‐books. Students were satisfied with the e‐book, but they preferred p‐books.

Students would show satisfaction with e‐books and acknowledge their usefulness, but still prefer p‐books. However, a clearer understanding of this paradox in perception is needed. Further studies should try to explore the students' perceptions of e‐books.

Surprisingly, though, Korean students studied herein, who have had a higher level of exposure to technology than those in other countries, did not show positive behavioral intentions toward e‐books. Overall, the responses from the Korean students suggest that there was general satisfaction with reading e‐books on screen. However, this study also found a discordance in the students' perceptions of e‐books. In this study, most students grew tired of reading on the screen; this tiredness could have an adverse effect on both reading comprehension and the perception of e‐books. In further analyzing user responses, many of the critical remarks were found to refer to the screen/text size or clarity rather than to the e‐book itself.

Although this study suggests that students in general are not yet ready to entirely give up p‐books, e‐books are becoming increasingly common. However, great challenges remain in terms of making e‐book content more available and in enabling improved comprehension and reducing eye fatigue.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the key factors that affect users’ adoption of e-books using an extension of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) that includes the following factors: environmental concerns, perceived benefits, and benevolence trust.

The authors analyzed survey responses from 343 participants using structural equation modeling to examine the hypothesized relationships in this research model.

The results show that users’ adoption of e-books is determined by performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, environmental concern, perceived benefit, and benevolence trust.

The authors restricted this study to consumers’ adoption of e-books. Further studies could examine consumer’s adoption of other mediums, such as cutting-edge information technologies.

The results suggest that marketers should consider altering their methods of promoting e-books to attract consumers and further affect their usage intention.

This study proposes and tests an extended UTAUT model that includes the additional factors of environmental concern, perceived benefit, and benevolence trust in order to examine the influence of these factors on e-book adoption. The findings are particularly useful for assisting managers to increase e-book adoption.