Some Results from the Survey: Library Use of E-books

[primarydat@aol.com]

Primary Research Group has published Library Use of E-books,
2008-09 Edition, (isbn 1-57440-101-7) and would like to share
some of the results.

Data in the report are based on a survey of 75 academic, public
and special libraries..  Librarians detail their plans on how
they plan to develop their e-book collections, what they think of
e-book readers and software, and which e-book aggregators and
publishers appeal to them most and why. Other issues covered
include: library production of e-books and collection
digitization, e-book collection information literacy efforts, use
of e-books in course reserves and inter-library loan, e-book
pricing and inflation issues, acquisition sources and strategies
for e-books and other issues of concern to libraries and book
publishers.

Some of the findings of the 110 page report are:

*Libraries in the sample expected to renew over 77% of their
current contracts.

*Well over 81% of the sample cataloged their e-book collection
and listed it in their online library catalog.

*E-book spending by libraries is growing rapidly in 2008 but by
significantly less than in 2007

*For the most part, librarians in the sample felt that their
patrons were less skilled in using e-book collections than they
were in using databases of magazine, newspaper and journal
articles.

*The libraries in the sample had MARC records for a mean of
approximately 74% of the e-books in their collections.

*Many libraries reported significant use of electronic
directories. 12.5% reported extensive use and 30% said that use
was significant. The larger libraries reported the heaviest use.

*Use of e-books in the hard sciences was particularly high. More
than 30% of participants said that use of e-books in the hard
sciences (defined as chemistry, physics and biology) was quite
extensive and another 26% noted significant use.

*Libraries in the sample maintained a print version for a mean of
24% of the e-books in their e-book collections.

*Nearly 21% of the libraries in our sample have digitized
out-of-copyright books in their collections in order to make
their contents more available to their patrons.

*E-books account for only about 3.9% of the books on course
reserve, with a minimum of 0 to a maximum of 30%.

*Nearly 70% of the sample=E2=80=99s total spending on e-books was with
aggregators, while just over 24.6% of the total spending was
spent with individual publishers.

Data are broken out by library budget size, for US and non-US
libraries and for academic and non-academic libraries. The report
presents more than 300 tables of data on e-book use by libraries,
as well as analysis and commentary.

For further information view our website at www.PrimaryResearch.com.

James Moses
Primary Research Group, Inc.
Tel. 212-736-2316
Fax 212-412-9097