Assessing e-books: Taking a closer look at e-book statistics

How E-books Are Used

“…Sprague and Hunter also found that catalogued e-books were used at a slightly higher rate then those that were not catalogued (20 percent vs. 16 percent). 16 On the other hand, it is worth mentioning that Sprague and Hunter calculated that the cost-per-use rate for individually-selected titles was seventeen times higher than for titles purchased as part of an aggregate package. 17 The upshot is that the studies find e-books are being used at a viable rate, although the figures in the study by Sprague and Hunter raise some doubt, as does the recurrent finding that some portion of users were confused as to what exactly constitutes an e-book.…”

What Cost and Usage Data Reveals About E-Book Acquisitions: Ramifications for Collection Development

“…13 Further studies compare e-book usage across subject disciplines. Hoseth and McLure discuss e-book usage in the social sciences.…”

“…The STEM area shows the most purchased e-books (9,938) compared to HSS (2,218) and MED (1,346). The e-books acquired for STEM equated to 74 percent of the total number of e-books purchased (13,502) with by far the highest expenditures ($262,756) compared to expenditures in HSS ($54,701) or MED ($65,080). With almost three-fourths of the e-books purchased in these packages, STEM titles also had the most uses (72,774) and percentage of usage (65 percent).…”

Disruption and Disintermediation

“…83 Sprague and Hunter combined use statistics with bibliographic data to assess collections acquired from three major e-book providers, including an analysis of title overlap. 84 The authors were surprised to find relatively low use of e-books across all subject areas and platforms at the University of Idaho. They also found that individually purchased titles showed a significantly higher rate of use than package titles, but the high cost of individually purchased titles resulted in a significantly greater cost per use.…”