The document discusses the rise in use of e-books at the University of Portsmouth from 2004 to 2012. Some key points: - E-book usage increased over 1000% in this period as the university increased its e-book collection from 15,000 to 90,000 titles. - Surveys found students found e-books increasingly convenient and useful for coursework, with over 50% of students in 2012 preferring e-books to print. - The top factors contributing to high e-book use were the large selection, convenience, and search/copy tools helping time-pressed students. Active promotion by lecturers and librarians also drove usage. - While students saw

1. The Rise and Rise of E-books:
A Case Study from the
University of Portsmouth, UK
Anne Worden
Faculty Librarian:
Humanities and Social Sciences
November 2012

2. Background
• UoP is a post-1992 university with c20,000 FTEs
• Trial of networked e-books began in 2004
• Number of bought-in e-books has increased
from 15,000 to around 90,000
• Books from Credo Reference, DawsonEra,
ebrary, MyiLibrary, Oxford Scholarship Online
• Since 2005 use of e-books at Portsmouth has
increased by well over 1000%
• UoP has the highest use of e-books in the UK
(SCONUL Strategic Planning Data 2010-11)

3. E-book Section Requests
6000000
5000000
4000000
3000000
2000000
1000000
0
0
1
2
/5
/6
/7
/8
/9
/1
/1
/1
4
5
6
7
8
9
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2

4. E-book Survey Participants
• Spring 2009 survey
• 903 Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) & 208 Technology
students
• Spring 2012 survey
• 1118 HSS & 101 Technology students
 646 female 18-23 yr old HSS students
 322 male 18-23 yr old HSS students
 28 HSS students aged 24-29
 41 HSS students aged 30+
 81 HSS part-time mature students from School of Education

5. Do you use e-books for every assignment?
70
60
50
40
2009
30 2012
20
10
0
HSS Male HSS Female HSS Part-time Technology
2012
Percentage saying “Yes”

6. How useful are e-books for your course?
60
50
40
30
Not at all
20 Some use
Quite useful
10
Very useful
0
Percentages by age and course group

7. How useful are e-books for your course?
70
60
50
40
Not at all useful
30
Some use
20 Quite useful
Very useful
10
0
Percentages for female HSS students

8. How useful are e-books for your course?
60
50
40
30
Not at all useful
Some use
20
Quite useful
10 Very useful
0
Percentages for male HSS students

9. Why do you use e-books?
45
40
35
30
HSS 09
25 HSS 12
HSS Part-time
20
Tech 09
15 Tech 12
10
5
0
Convenient Easy to search Print taken Prefer online Other
Percentages choosing each option

10. Student Views – Advantages 1
So useful especially if
it’s a book everyone
on the course needs
and there are not
enough hard copies
Really convenient Languages Yr 4
to use
It is easy to Languages Yr 1
bookmark pages
and highlight so that It saves trouble of
you can go back to going into the library
and carrying the
research easily
book back home
English Lit Yr 3 MSc Computing

11. Student Views – Advantages 2
E-books are easier to flick The word search
through to find the right is very useful and
chapters relevant to often saves time
assignment reading
Languages Yr 2 irrelevant pages
Sociology Yr 3
Brilliant, life saver!
Extremely useful
Copy and paste and easy to use
saves a lot of English Lit Yr 3
time when using
You don’t have to
quotes in any essay
pay fines!!
Languages Yr 2 Languages Yr 4

12. Given a choice, I would prefer to use:
70
60
50
HSS 09
40 HSS 12
HSS Part-time
30 Tech 09
Tech 12
20
10
0
E-book Print No preference It depends
In 2009 59% of HSS & 44% of Tech students responding preferred
to use a printed book. In 2012 it was 51% HSS and 35% Tech.

13. Given a choice, I would prefer to use:
90
80
70
60
50
E-book
40
Print
30
No preference
20 It depends
10
0
Percentages for female HSS students

14. Given a choice, I would prefer to use:
70
60
50
40
E-book
30
Print
20 No preference
It depends
10
0
Percentages for male HSS students

15. Discriminating consumers
• For reading a novel, I would have a printed
version, but for research and other I would
use an e-book English Literature Yr 1
• Prefer printed books for long articles, e-book
for short references English Literature Yr 2
• For reading I prefer printed copies. For
extracting quotes, e-books are better Politics Yr 1
• Large books are better to read from paper
copy - foreign language sources are easier to
read from paper copy Languages Yr 2
• Whether it’s for pleasure or research Eng Lit Yr 1

16. Top 10 UoP e-books accessed in 2011
• 70,131 Sage dictionary of criminology
• 34,669 Biosocial Criminology: New Directions In Theory
• 26,254 Contemporary Leadership Theories
• 20,857 Future Savvy: Identifying Trends to Make
Better Decisions & Manage Uncertainty
• 19,464 Constitutional and Administrative Law
• 19,099 Labour Relations in the Global Fast-Food Industry
• 18,009 How to Price: A Guide to Pricing Techniques and
Yield Management
• 17,205 Doing Your Research Project: A Guide for First-
Time Researchers in Education
• 17,123 Introduction to Early Modern English
• 15,174 Afghanistan: How the West Lost Its Way

17. Why is use so high at Portsmouth?
Environmental factors
• Sheer number of e-books available (& on
library catalogue)
• Increased no. of students but lack of space
and money to increase no. of multiple copies
• Significant number of distance learners

18. Why is use so high at Portsmouth?
Student factors
• Students value convenience of e-books
• E-books give fair access to all, regardless of how late they
leave it to look
• Word searching tools & copy+paste assist students who are
short of time
• For many students finding books in a physical library is
difficult – e-books particularly benefit these students
• Enthusiastic take-up by Humanities & Social Science students

19. Why is use so high at Portsmouth?
What’s happening on the ground
• Promotion of e-books by lecturers & deliberate
inclusion as key weekly reading on reading lists
– Strong engagement across Humanities & Social Sciences
• Demonstration of e-books by librarians
– Hands-on workshops a part of Study Skills units
• Systematic checking of reading lists for e-book
matches
• Buying e-books which match weekly reservation
requests
– Algerian War book bought just before Easter reached
3081 section requests in 21 days
– European Revolutions 1848 book bought just before
Christmas had 17099 section requests in January 2012

20. Top student concerns re e-books
• More e-books should be made available
“Would be even more useful if there was more available”
Languages Yr 1
• Downloading to Kindles etc should be possible
“Would like to be able to download to Kindle for all e-
books” Computing Yr 2
“They’re great – provided I can read them on any device I
own” Computing Yr 1
• Moving through pages should be easier
“If the page turning system were made easier it’d be
great” American Studies Yr 1
• Find reading on-screen uncomfortable
“Sometimes they hurt my eyes to read” Criminol Yr 2
“I don’t like reading text on a computer screen” Computing Yr 1

21. The final word…