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Transcript of Levine-Clark, Michael “Diving into eBook Usage: Assessing the Swell of Information,” Electronic...
Diving Into E-Book Usage: Navigating the Swell of Information
ER&LAustin
March 17, 2014
Michael Levine-ClarkAssociate Dean for Scholarly Communication and Collections Services
University of Denver Libraries
What can we learn by examining usage of 750,000+ e-books?
• Does quality matter?• Are there general patterns by subject?• Can we identify disciplinary preferences?• What are the best ways to measure use?• Can those patterns and preferences help
shape our collections and guide our services?
Coming Soon: More data, with more solid
conclusions
The Data Set
• 2010– 435,417 titles– 5,295 libraries
• 2011– 537,743 titles– 5,899 libraries
• 2012– 667,427 titles– 6,474 libraries
• 2013 (through Sept 4)– 776,060 titles– 7,118 libraries
• 2011– 225,448 titles– 291 libraries
• 2012– 320,796 titles– 411 libraries
• 2013 (through Sept 9)– 378,530 titles– 587 libraries
Combined Data
• 2010-Sept 2013• 435,417 titles• 304,417 with an LC call
number• 32,988 university press
titles
• 2011-Sept 2013• 217,457 titles• 210,539 titles with an LC
call number• 21,089 university press
titles
Usage Definitions• Session– Any time that a user interacts with an e-book
• View– A count of the number of pages examined
• Download– A download of the entire book
Some aspects of usage aren’t comparable
• ebrary has far more libraries than EBL, and an extra year of data– Averages and totals only useful when comparing
within one aggregator• There may be some platform differences that
drive usage in different ways:– More downloads on EBL = fewer pages viewed
Call Numbers
• Assigned to some books, but not all• More for EBL than ebrary• Call numbers may be inconsistently applied– Will soon have set with combined titles and single
call number
Breadth vs Depth
PERCENTAGE OF TITLES USED
AVER
AGE
AMO
UN
T O
F U
SE
DO HIGHER-QUALITY E-BOOKS GET USED MORE?
University Press Books
• A proxy for quality• ebrary – 32,988 titles• EBL – 21,089 titles
Do better books get used at a higher rate?
Overall Usage: titles with at least one session
ebrary EBL0.00%
10.00%20.00%30.00%40.00%50.00%60.00%70.00%80.00%90.00%
100.00%
69.61%
88.33%91.72% 89.00%93.76% 93.80%
All Titles Titles with LC Call NumberUniversity Press Titles
Overall Usage: average sessions per title
across all libraries
ebrary EBL0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
147.43
69.39
208.64
70.99
339.01
76.74
All Titles Titles with LC Call NumberUniversity Press Titles
Overall Usage:titles viewed at least once
ebrary EBL0.00%
10.00%20.00%30.00%40.00%50.00%60.00%70.00%80.00%90.00%
100.00%
69.15%
87.30%91.70% 88.01%
93.74% 92.82%
All Titles Titles with LC Call NumberUniversity Press Titles
Overall Usage: average page views per title
across all libraries
ebrary EBL0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
2245.23
1310.39
3174.31
1341.91
5203.82
1499.78
All Titles Titles with LC Call NumberUniversity Press Titles
Overall Usage: titles with at least one full download
ebrary EBL0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
70.00%
80.00%
24.35%
59.12%
34.42%
59.83%
40.12%
67.77%
All Titles Titles with LC Call NumberUniversity Press Titles
Overall Usage: average downloads per title
across all libraries
ebrary EBL0
2
4
6
8
10
12
2.77
9.34
3.95
9.54
5.64
10.41
All Titles Titles with LC Call NumberUniversity Press Titles
University Press Summary
• Used at a higher rate across all categoriesBUT
• University press books may be available in more libraries
BROAD DISCIPLINARY DIFFERENCES
The Disciplines
HumanitiesB (Philosophy, Religion) excluding BF (Psychology)C, D, E, F (History)M (Music)N (Fine Arts)P (Language & Literature)
Social Sciences BF (Psychology)H (Social Sciences)J (Political Science)K (Law)L (Education)U, V (Military, Naval Sciences)
STEMQ (Science)R (Medicine)S (Agriculture)T (Technology)
Percentage of Titles Usedebrary
Discipline % Titles with a Session
% Titles Viewed % Titles Downloaded
Humanities 92.05% 92.04% 40.87%
Social Sciences 92.70% 92.69% 36.40%
STEM 90.19% 90.17% 27.53%
Baseline (all titles with an LCCN) 91.72% 91.70% 34.42%
Percentage of Titles UsedEBL
Discipline % Titles with a Session
% Titles Viewed % Titles Downloaded
Humanities 88.44% 87.19% 58.62%
Social Sciences 89.95% 89.12% 62.40%
STEM 88.30% 87.35% 57.68%
Baseline (all titles with an LCCN) 89.00% 88.01% 59.83%
Average Usageebrary
Discipline Sessions Page Views Full Downloads
Humanities 207.79 3122.16 3.95
Social Sciences 251.21 3766.11 4.74
STEM 162.57 2570.70 3.16
Baseline (all titles with LCCN) 208.64 3174.31 3.95
Average UsageEBL
Discipline Sessions Page Views Full Downloads
Humanities 54.18 999.12 6.76
Social Sciences 91.96 1694.91 12.54
STEM 59.90 1192.46 8.32
Baseline (all titles with LCCN) 70.99 1341.91 9.54
Actions Per Sessionebrary
Discipline Views Per Session Downloads Per Session
Humanities 15.03 0.019
Social Sciences 14.99 0.019
STEM 15.81 0.019
Baseline (all titles with an LCCN) 15.21 0.019
Actions Per SessionEBL
Discipline Views Per Session Downloads Per Session
Humanities 18.44 0.125
Social Sciences 18.43 0.136
STEM 19.91 0.139
Baseline (all titles with an LCCN) 18.90 0.134
Disciplinary Summary
• Social sciences far outperform humanities and STEM in two categories– Percentage of books used– Average amount of use
• Humanities stronger than STEM on ebrary• STEM stronger than humanities on EBL• STEM outperforms the others in actions per
session
MEASURING PREDICTED USE
Difference from Predicted UseLC Class % of eBooks
available% of titles with a session
Difference
A – General Works 0.19% 0.19% 0.00%
B – Philos, Psych, Religion 7.03% 6.88% -0.16%
C – Aux Sciences of History 0.40% 0.41% +0.01%
D – World History, etc. 3.70% 3.73% +0.03%
E – History of the Americas 1.65% 1.71% +0.06%
F – History of the Americas 1.96% 1.85% -0.11%
G – Geog, Anthro, Rec 2.94% 3.01% +0.07%
H – Social Sciences 21.98% 22.27% +0.29%
J – Political Science 3.40% 3.50% +0.10%
K – Law 3.33% 3.29% -0.04%
Difference from Predicted UseLC Class % of eBooks
available% of titles with a session
Difference
L - Education 4.61% 4.80% +0.19%
M - Music 0.81% 0.85% +0.04%
N – Fine Arts 1.06% 1.10% +0.04%
P – Language & Literature 10.87% 11.00% +0.13%
Q - Science 13.09% 12.51% -0.58%
R - Medicine 10.83% 10.73% -0.10%
S - Agriculture 2.01% 2.08% +0.07%
T - Technology 8.65% 8.69% +0.04%
U – Military Science 0.69% 0.58% -0.11%
V – Naval Science 0.12% 0.12% 0.00%
Z – Bibliography and LIS 0.67% 0.69% -0.02%
% of titles used (breadth)
% of titles used (breadth)
% of overall usage (depth)
% of overall usage (depth)
Performance Compared to Expected Use
Better than expected (top five)
• H (Social Sciences)• L (Education)• G (Geography,
Anthropology, Recreation)• N (Fine Arts)• D (World History)
Worse than expected (bottom five)
• Q (Science)• F (History of the Americas)• P (Language & Literature)• K (Law)• U (Military Science)
INTENSIVE / EXTENSIVE USE
ebrary Sessions – Avg and % Narrow (low %) but Deep (more usage of each title)
Broad (high %) andDeep (more usage of each title)
Narrow (low %) andShallow (low usage of each title)
Broad (high % and Shallow (low usage of each title)
EBL Sessions – Avg and % Narrow (low %) but Deep (more usage of each title)
Broad (high %) andDeep (more usage of each title)
Narrow (low %) andShallow (low usage of each title)
Broad (high % and Shallow (low usage of each title)
ebrary Page Views – Avg and % Narrow (low %) but Deep (more usage of each title)
Broad (high %) andDeep (more usage of each title)
Narrow (low %) andShallow (low usage of each title)
Broad (high % and Shallow (low usage of each title)
EBL Page Views – Avg and % Narrow (low %) but Deep (more usage of each title)
Broad (high %) andDeep (more usage of each title)
Narrow (low %) andShallow (low usage of each title)
Broad (high % and Shallow (low usage of each title)
ebrary Downloaded – Avg and % Narrow (low %) but Deep (more usage of each title)
Broad (high %) andDeep (more usage of each title)
Narrow (low %) andShallow (low usage of each title)
Broad (high % and Shallow (low usage of each title)
EBL Downloaded – Avg and % Narrow (low %) but Deep (more usage of each title)
Broad (high %) andDeep (more usage of each title)
Narrow (low %) andShallow (low usage of each title)
Broad (high % and Shallow (low usage of each title)
CAN WE DETERMINE LEVEL OF IMMERSION IN A BOOK?
If more pages are viewed per session in a subject area, does that mean that users spend more time in those books?
Page Views Per Session - ebrary
T F E Q R C G H D N J M P B K L U A S V Z10.00
11.00
12.00
13.00
14.00
15.00
16.00
17.00
18.00
15.21
Page Views Per Session - EBL
F N T R M A E Q G C H D S B K P V J L Z U10.00
12.00
14.00
16.00
18.00
20.00
22.00
24.00
18.90
Average Rank Across Both Aggregators: Page Views Per Session
1. F – History, Americas2. T – Technology3. R – Medicine4. E – History, Americas5. N – Fine Arts6. Q – Science7. C – Aux Sciences of History8. G – Geography,
Anthropology, Recreation9. M – Music10. H – Social Sciences
11. D – History, World, etc.12. A – General Works13. B – Philos, Psych, Religion14. J – Political Science15. P – Language & Literature16. K – Law17. S – Agriculture18. L – Education19. V – Naval Science20. U – Military Science21. Z – Bibliography and LIS
CONCLUSIONS
There are many ways to measure use
• Difference from predicted use• Depth vs breadth– Books used a lot vs a lot of books used
• Type of use (session, view, download)• Amount of use per session– Does this measure amount of time spent?
Quality matters (maybe)
• University press books used at a higher rate by all measures
• Users appear to be making some judgment about quality
• But, UP books may be available in more libraries
There are clear (but nuanced) differences by subject
• Two examples– F (History, Americas) • Low usage as % of available F titles• Low average usage rate• Very poor performance relative to availability of F titles• Highest # of page views by session
– L (Education)• High usage as % of available L titles• High average usage rate• Very strong performance relative to availability of L titles• Very low # of page views by session
How do we use these observations to build better collections and
better serve our users?
White Paper
• Coming soon• Combined data set across both platforms• Analysis by– Date of publication– Length of time in the book
• More (and better?) call numbers
For More Information…
• The white paper will be available on the ebrary and EBL websites this spring
• This presentation is available on SlideShare:http://www.slideshare.net/MichaelLevineClark
Thank You
Michael Levine-ClarkAssociate Dean for Scholarly Communication and
Collections ServicesUniversity of Denver [email protected]