The SuperBook project:e-book use in practice

Ian RowlandsCIBER Virtual Scholar Programme

pratt sils summer school 2007

Context

CIBER and the Virtual Scholar programme

Action research: creating an e-book observatory

CIBER and UCL Library Services are working together to try to understand the impact created by a major injection of e-book resources.

Oxford Scholarship Online, Taylor & Francis, and Wiley Interscience have made more than 3,000 e-books available free to UCL students and faculty for 12 months from October 2006.

During this period, patterns of e-book use and acceptance are being explored in a live research laboratory.

Experimentation is being encouraged: on behalf of both library professionals and publishers.

SuperBook aims to ...

• provide UCL Library Services and academic staff with information on student take-up and use of e-books;

• illuminate the issues surrounding the integration of e-books within learning and teaching;

• inform academic staff in their choices about scholarly publishing and in the selection of e-books for their students;

• inform the publishing industry with insights into user attitudes and the optimal design features for e-book platforms.

Interim findings

•Benchmark survey findings

•Deep log analysis findings

Interim findings

•Benchmark survey

•Deep log analysis

Existing e-book users:baseline data

(n=1,818)SuperBook benchmark survey

Percentage distribution

Existing e-book users: baseline age profile

(n=1,818)SuperBook benchmark survey

Percentage distribution

Perceptions of e-books: baseline data

(n=760)SuperBook benchmark survey

Percentage point differences: e-books minus print ratings

SuperBook benchmark survey

How users found out about UCL e-books

(n=521)

Frequency distribution

Interim findings

•Benchmark survey

•Deep log analysis

144.82.xxx.xx 59D423E0E0F85EDEA6FCEF3D1427C706 5204 [03/Nov/2006:14:39:47 +0000] "GET /oso/private/content/economicsfinance/0199271488/p015.html HTTP/1.1" 200 55540 "http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/oso/login.jsp?errorMessage=You%20do%20not%20have%20access%20to%20any%20titles&forward=http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/oso/private/content/economicsfinance/0199271488/p015.html" "/oso/private/content/economicsfinance/0199271488/p015.html" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-GB; rv:1.8.0.7) Gecko/20060909 Firefox/1.5.0.7"

Deep log metrics

• Basic metrics

• number of pages / chapters viewed

• number of sessions and `site penetration’

• time spent online

• number of return visits

• number of print sessions

Deep log metrics

• User characteristics

• subject (of material viewed)

• subject (by sub-network)

• geographical location (e.g. hall of residence)

• referral link used (e.g. google)

Daily page viewsOxford Scholarship Online SuperBook deep log analysis

Frequency distribution

Time spent onlineOxford Scholarship Online SuperBook deep log analysis

Percentage distribution

Types of pages viewedOxford Scholarship Online SuperBook deep log analysis

Percentage distribution

Types of pages viewedOxford Scholarship Online SuperBook deep log analysis

Percentage distribution

full text content = 52% of page views

21%

21%

11%

21%

11%

38%

21%

11%

38%

5%

Some early conclusions

• High levels of interest in and take-up of e-books, especially among graduate students, males, and heavy Google users

• Catalogue entries are very effective at driving users to e-book content: catalogued books are more than twice as likely to be used

• Use in heavily concentrated in a few high-demand titles, the long tail, so far is much weaker than for journal use

• Big differences in take-up between disciplines

• User uncertainty / finding their feet? (Well over one in four sessions did not lead to a view of content)

Looking to the future: growth points for e-books

• maximising use by unblocking hard copy bottlenecks;

• creating new use by taking traffic away from from e-journals;

• creating new users by reaching out to those alienated from the library;

• stimulating user by making book content findable: for the first time, book content is deeply indexed, linked and searchable and visible in the digital shop window for the first time;

• building user confidence through `walled gardens’ of authoritative publisher content