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The purpose of this paper is to present the second part of three inter‐related studies investigating the use and usability of e‐books in higher education based on experiments conducted at the University of Strathclyde.

The research discussed here involved two analyses: an analysis of two e‐book collections in the libraries of the University of Strathclyde and the University of Glasgow and an analysis of a follow‐up study to a web survey into user interactions with e‐books in one of the library's collections.

The follow‐up study found that in general students found that interacting with e‐books in the library collection was easy. Students indicated that their preferred book formats varied depending on the context of their information need. Despite their positive reaction and attitudes towards e‐books, students commented that e‐books needed to be promoted more strongly and that there were limitations with respect to their use.

The study presented here was a small‐scale study based only on e‐book collections from one supplier (NetLibrary) and involved only 18 respondents. While this is considered sufficient based on the discount usability testing concept, generalisation of the results should be made with caution.

The findings should be of value to academic libraries in terms of improving e‐book collection management. This study highlights current attitudes of students towards e‐book in terms of how they interact with them, the features they value and their preferences between e‐books and paper books in a university library.

This paper provides useful information on students’ attitudes towards e‐books.

This paper discusses the genesis of e‐books and derives a comprehensive definition from various definitions reported for them. It lists the various types of e‐books with their characteristics and the major players in the market. It also highlights the pros and cons of e‐books, and compares select e‐book reader hardware and software with their specifications, requirements and characteristics. The impact of e‐books on the publishing industry, on libraries and librarians, and digital rights management is discussed. The author concludes that e‐books are rapidly becoming a viable alternative and provide growing advantages over the traditional medium.

The aim of this study is to compare print and e-book use for identical titles in the e-Duke Scholarly Collection (e-DSC) from 2011 to 2013 to determine format preference for a discrete collection of titles in humanities and social sciences.

Use statistics for the e-DSC were downloaded from the e-book platform by title and call number to determine use by title and subject. Circulation statistics were culled from the library’s integrated library system for the same titles to compare e-book use to that of the same print title.

Although e-books had a high number of titles with use as a per cent of the collection, examination of substantive use shows a slight preference for print. While 73 per cent of the e-books garnered enough interest to click on them, only 12 per cent had substantive use.

The e-DSC changed platforms in December 2013. The new platform does not require users to create an account to download e-book sections and digital rights management limitations have been removed. The same examination of collection use in 2.5 years on the new platform will provide an interesting comparison on the function of platform on e-book use.

The comparison of identical print and e-titles is less studied and includes the examination of “substantive use” in comparing print to e-book use.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the use and usability of e‐books from the perspectives of users in an academic and research environment.

This study involved an e‐mail questionnaire to survey researchers in the academic and research environment of the Indian Institute of Science regarding their use of e‐books.

The responses indicated that the students tend to use this new technology more often than faculty members and staff. Those who did use e‐books mostly used reference and technical material. The highest response was from the Centre for Ecological Science, followed by the Supercomputer Education and Research Centre, and then the Department of Molecular Reproduction and Development and Genetics. The majority of the respondents have used computers for over five years for a variety of purposes including e‐mail communication, internet browsing and text processing as well as for other advanced uses such as numerical computing and DNA sequence analysis. However, the use of e‐books appears to be very low, indicating a requirement for creating awareness and user education about both software and hardware related to e‐books. Only 37 of the 104 respondents had used the free trial offer from Kluwer and Edutech eBooks during July 2004.

There has been no previous study reported which has investigated users' perspectives of e‐books in an academic and research environment in India using a questionnaire method.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the significance of e-Books in universities, by looking for critical issues and practices which contribute enormously to enhancing its effectiveness.

The study adopted a descriptive research study design. The use of survey was efficient for this study because it was possible to obtain answers to different variables such as attitudes, personal characteristics and behaviors on usage of e-Books. Survey questionnaires were used on a student sample population at United States International University-A. The study was guided by three independent variables: technological factors, individual factors and institutional support factors. The dependent variable was the usage of e-Books.

The findings established that a majority of the student are computer literate as a whole and have a clear understanding of e-Books. The results further established that students encounter problems when carrying out searches in e-Books and that there is lack of knowledge of the e-Books subscribed by the university library. Support from the university management on the introduction of e-Books by financing its subscription was one of the factors enhancing the access and use of e-Books.

Knowledge of the significance of e-Books can assist libraries restructure their e-Books policies and hence hasten the adoption and implementation of e-Books usage in academic libraries in Kenya.

The continued presence of electronic books or e‐books has significantly affected the publishing industry in recent years. The growing popularity of the Web and public acceptance of new e‐book technologies is facilitating their spread. However, initial optimism about the growth of the medium has been tempered by a measured uptake of the medium and the withdrawal of some e‐books products from the market. This paper attempts to update the position with e‐books and provide an overview of e‐book technologies by defining types of e‐books, listing their implementations, their advantages and disadvantages, hardware, software, management software and their future. The paper concludes that the success or failure of e‐books depends not only on acceptance by users but also on the publishing industry's ability to see beyond traditional business models. The e‐book readers are still in early stages of development but the hope is that common industry standards will soon be adopted and the medium will reach its full potential.

This paper aims to reveal the perceived barriers to e-book interlibrary loan (ILL) and their reflections on academic libraries’ ILL/lending policies. Academic libraries in the USA have witnessed an impressive growth in acquiring e-journals and e-books. Although ILL of e-journal articles has become a standard practice, ILL of copyrighted e-books does not appear to be equally common. E-book ILL is often considered difficult or nearly impossible because restrictions for ILL are embedded in license agreements (or terms of use) and reinforced by technological measures.

The study opted for a telephone survey method, in which researchers collected data on ILL/lending policies about e-journals and e-books in 200 randomly selected academic libraries in the USA.

The findings show the state of e-books in US academic libraries and demonstrate the slow adoption of e-book ILL compared to e-journal ILL. Licensing restrictions and lack of technical means are the major obstacles perceived by librarians, but there may also be a barrier of perception.

The survey data do not necessarily provide explanations. In-depth interviews may be needed to explain the barriers and perceptions.

This paper reveals important perceptions and facts about e-book ILL in academic libraries and analyzes the obstacles and restrictions on e-book.

This paper provides empirical data on the status of e-book ILL.

A questionnaire survey was distributed among 27 students at a library and information science school in the USA to find out what users and potential users think about e‐books in this transition period, when the US economy has experienced downtime, and the e‐book world cannot see profitability in its business as predicted. Among the 27 survey participants, a third of them have used e‐books in the past, mostly reading computer‐based e‐books without special readers. “Available around the clock” and “searchable” are both chosen and ranked as the most important reasons. Those who have never used e‐books mainly think that ebooks are “hard to read and browse” or “need special equipment”. However, about half of the non‐users of e‐books plan to examine some e‐book titles in the future.

The paper illustrates the experiences of both academic and support staff in the use of electronic books within a higher education setting. The case studies report upon practice at Edge Hill College of Higher Education, which has allowed for successful e‐book development strategies to be employed in teaching and learning within the college. The paper will deal particularly with e‐book marketing, implementation and evaluation strategies, as well as embedding e‐books into virtual learning environments (VLEs).

The paper reports upon two significant chapters within e‐book development at the college. The first of these is an initial evaluative e‐book research project, from which strategy and policy were formulated. The second part of the paper introduces case studies in which the findings of the initial research impact upon the embedding of e‐books into teaching and learning and subsequently into the college's VLE.

User evaluations provide qualitative analytic data into the benefits and disadvantages of using e‐books in higher education teaching and learning activity.

The findings are limited to one particular higher education institution and specific curriculum areas within.

The evaluative data, as well as particular e‐book strategies identified, make the paper of value to those researching e‐book usage and activity, in particular within online learning.

This paper provides an analysis of the current state‐of‐the‐art in e‐books, and attempts both to set the scene and provide reasons for their low uptake.

The different approaches to e‐books of academic librarians, authors, publishers and readers are considered, using the results of a recent survey commissioned by the Joint Information Systems Committee.

The findings of this study make it clear that those who know about e‐books see them as potentially useful tools. However, a number of users of ICT resources are still unaware of e‐books even when their academic libraries' e‐book holdings is high. The lack of promotion from within the university, particularly from the academics, and to a certain extent from the librarians, is indeed a major reason for this knowledge gap.

Publishers, e‐book providers and aggregators, academics and intermediaries (i.e. librarians and information specialists) should concentrate on raising awareness of what is available and what are the advantages related to e‐books for specific categories of users. At the same time e‐book suppliers should make e‐books easier to find and purchase. Crucially, both the research and commercial development communities have to address these major issues: definition of common bench marks for research to progress; user‐centred design as a paradigm; better and stronger links with all stakeholders.

This paper offers a stepping stone for all parties interested in moving forwards to achieve this common goal.