Levine-Clark, Michael and Kari Paulson, “E-Book Usage on a Global Scale: Patterns, Trends, and Opportunities,” UKSG Annual Conference, Glasgow, March 30-April 1, 2015.
1. E-Book Usage on a Global Scale:
Patterns, Trends, and
Opportunities
UKSG
Glasgow
March 30-31, 2015
Michael Levine-Clark
University of Denver
michael.levine-clark@du.edu
2. What (we think) we know
• E-books are better/worse
– For some subjects than others
– For some types of use than others
• E-books don’t work for immersive reading
• E-books don’t work for the humanities
3. Tons of Data
The Project
• Worldwide usage data
– EBL 2013-2014
– ebrary 2013-2014
– All customers
– Aggregated by title
• Today:
– EBL 2013
– ebrary 2014
4. The Shape of the Data
• Spreadsheets for the world and by region
• One title, with all associated data
– LC Class, Subclass, BISAC
– Publication Year
– Number of libraries with title available
– Number of libraries with usage
– Multiple measures of usage
5. Some Data Snags
• EBL and ebrary data are not yet merged
• Call numbers
– Missing
– Errors
• xQ102… (Q102)
• BBF1427… (BF)
• Not easy to retroactively build a list of titles
visible to a library at a particular time
6. Benchmarking
• What can we learn from worldwide usage
data?
• Do trends across a huge data set matter?
• Is every institution so unique that only local
data is meaningful?
– Every institution has other resources competing
for each user’s time.
– e-books take up varying portions of an overall
collection
7. Usage Definitions
• Session
– Any time that a user
interacts with an e-book
• Page View
– A count of the number
of pages examined
• Download
– A download of the entire
book (EBL and ebrary)
• Chapter Download
(ebrary)
• Usage Time
– Minutes (EBL) or
seconds (ebrary) spent
looking at the book
• Copies
– A count of pages
copied/pasted
• Prints
– A count of the number
of pages printed
19. Booth, Craft of Research
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
Libraries with availability
Libraries with Usage
20. Booth, Craft of Research
97%
17,089 Sessions
Academic
Public
Special
86%
Sessions by Region
Africa
Asia Pacific
AUS/NZ
Europe
Latin America
Middle East
North America
South Asia
UK/Ireland
21. Booth, Craft of Research
• Additional Measures of Usage
– 368,879 page views
– 1,162 pages copied
– 62,009 pages printed
– 0 downloads
– 2,323 chapter downloads
– Used 17,453,759 seconds (4,848 hours)
23. Categories of Analysis
• LC Class and subclass
– Broad academic division (humanities, social
sciences, STEM)
– Subject
• BISAC
• Publication date
• Region (Africa, Asia Pacific, etc.)
• Publisher or publisher type
24. Academic Divisions
Arts & Humanities
B (Philosophy, Religion)
excluding BF (Psychology)
C, D, E, F (History)
M (Music)
N (Fine Arts)
P (Language & Literature)
TR (Photography)
Other
A (General)
G (Geography, Anthropology,
Recreation)
Z (Bibliography, LIS)
Social Sciences
BF (Psychology)
H (Social Sciences)
J (Political Science)
K (Law)
L (Education)
U, V (Military, Naval Sciences)
STEM
Q (Science)
R (Medicine)
S (Agriculture)
T (Technology) (excluding TR)
25. Titles Available by Academic Division
194,420
185,558
184,053
78,854
STEM A&H Soc Sci Other
(12%)
(30%)
(29%)
(29%)
110,292
102,409
118,732
53,561
(14%)
(29%)
(27%)
(31%)
26. Average Number of Libraries with Title Available
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
27. Average Number of Libraries with Title
Available – Academic Divisions
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
Arts & Humanities Social Sciences STEM Other
412.26
28. Average Number of Libraries with Title
Available – Academic Divisions
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
Arts & Humanities Social Sciences STEM Other
88.89
29. Average Number of Libraries
with Title Available - LC Class
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
412.26
30. Average Number of Libraries
with Title Available - LC Class
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
88.89
32. Average Number of Libraries With:
0.00
1.00
2.00
3.00
4.00
5.00
6.00
A & H Soc Sci STEM Average
Session
View
Download
Copy
Print
Libraries with title available
76.78 100.63 87.56
33. Percentage of Libraries With:
0
0.01
0.02
0.03
0.04
0.05
0.06
0.07
A & H Soc Sci STEM Average
Session
View
Download
Copy
Print
34. Percentage of Libraries Using a Title
Region Average # of
Libraries with Title
Average # of
Libraries with Use
of Title
% of Libraries Using
Title
UK/Ireland 18.97 2.15 11.33%
Australia/NZ 16.86 1.39 8.22%
North America 204.70 5.26 2.57%
Europe 60.36 1.48 2.46%
Asia Pacific 169.97 1.78 1.05%
South Asia 58.06 0.56 0.96%
Middle East 87.51 0.71 0.81%
Africa 69.14 0.51 0.77%
Latin America 119.40 0.93 0.68%
World 412.26 9.25 2.24%
35. Percentage of Libraries Using a Title,
By Discipline
Region Arts & Humanities Social Sciences STEM
Africa 0.33% 1.08% 0.85%
Asia Pacific 0.71% 1.24% 1.31%
Australia/NZ 6.23% 9.42% 9.34%
Europe 2.07% 2.81% 2.47%
Latin America 0.42% 0.80% 1.19%
Middle East 0.54% 0.88% 1.12%
North America 2.42% 2.72% 2.58%
South Asia 0.60% 1.04% 1.32%
UK/Ireland 9.84% 13.22% 11.01%
World 1.93% 2.48% 2.36%
36. Conclusions about Likelihood of Use by
a Library
• For EBL, a higher percentage of libraries use
titles in the arts & humanities
• For ebrary, a higher percentage of libraries
use titles in STEM and Social Sciences with
variation by region
38. Titles Available / Titles Used
53.08%
46.88% 46.71%
38.59% 36.20% 33.13% 32.62% 32.16% 30.81%
25.41%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Titles With a Session Titles without a Session
39. Percentage of Titles Used By Discipline
63.84%
59.47%
50.20%
53.08%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Social Sciences Arts & Humanities STEM All Subjects
Useed Unused
40. Percentage of Titles Used By Discipline
73.99%
67.36% 67.36% 68.75%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Social Sciences Arts & Humanities STEM All Subjects
Useed Unused
41. Percentage of Titles Used By LC Class
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Session No Session
42. Titles Used By LC Class
0
20000
40000
60000
80000
100000
120000
Session No Session
43. Percentage of Titles Used, By Division
Region Arts & Humanities Social Sciences STEM
Africa 14.95% 30.77% 33.96%
Asia Pacific 45.80% 48.95% 46.48%
Australia/NZ 35.61% 40.24% 40.69%
Europe 36.79% 37.97% 25.36%
Latin America 26.83% 35.65% 34.11%
Middle East 25.65% 29.62% 41.59%
North America 54.16% 54.67% 43.94%
South Asia 24.01% 32.28% 43.88%
UK/Ireland 38.17% 38.45% 31.66%
World 59.47% 63.84% 50.20%
54. Conclusions about Likelihood of Use
• Social Science titles are more likely to have at
least one use
– But, some humanities subjects are most heavily
used. P (languages and literature) is relatively
poorly used.
• In general, social sciences titles are used
above what one would predict, with sciences
lower.
71. Likelihood of High Use: Conclusions
• Views Per Session
– Lowest in Developing
world
– Generally highest for
STEM
• Copy/Paste Per Session
– Regional variations
– Generally highest for
Social Sciences, lowest
for STEM
• Downloads Per Session
– Highest in Developing
world
– Generally highest for
STEM
• Printing Per Session
– Regional variations
– Generally highest for
STEM
72. Time Per Session
• Shorter in developing world
• Longest in Arts & Humanities
• Shortest in STEM
74. Top 10% of Titles with Sessions
• Worldwide
– 64,314 titles (10.00%)
• 75 sessions or more
– 15,755,652 sessions (80.69% of all sessions)
– Available at 1,821 libraries on average
– Used at 68 libraries on average (3.75%)
75. % of Sessions Represented by Top 10% of Titles
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
70.00%
80.00%
90.00%
100.00%
76. Disciplinary Representation Within Top
10% of Titles Used
Other
4%
STEM
26%
Soc Sci
37%
A&H
33%
Titles
Other
4%
STEM
27%
Soc Sci
42%
A&H
27%
Sessions
77. Titles Available by Academic Division
12%
30%
29%
29%
Other
STEM (Q, R, S, T-TP, TS-
TX)
Social Sciences (BF, H, J,
K, L, U, V)
Arts & Humanities (B-BD,
BH-BX, C, D, E, F, M, N, P,
TR)
78. Disciplinary Spread within Top 10% of Titles Used
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
A & H
Soc Sci
STEM
Other
79. % of Sessions within Top 10% of Titles
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Other STEM Soc Sci A & H
80. % of Sessions Represented by Top 10% of Titles
77.21%
83.05%
80.96%
74.00%
75.00%
76.00%
77.00%
78.00%
79.00%
80.00%
81.00%
82.00%
83.00%
84.00%
A & H Soc Sci STEM
81. % of Sessions Represented by Top 10% of Titles
50.00%
55.00%
60.00%
65.00%
70.00%
75.00%
80.00%
85.00%
90.00%
95.00%
100.00%
A & H Soc Sci STEM
82. High-Use Titles: Conclusions
• Top 10% of titles represent 70% of sessions
worldwide
• Social Sciences more heavily represented than
in the data set as a whole
• Arts & Humanities more heavily represented,
but accounts for fewer sessions than would be
expected
– Usage spread more deeply across titles for A&H
108. One Size Does Not Fit All
• Arts & Humanities
– Highest likelihood a library with access to a title will make
use of it
• Social Sciences
– Highest percentage of available titles used
– Even higher percentage of overall sessions
• STEM
– Most page views per session
– Most downloads per session
– Least amount of time in the book
109. Don’t Rely on a Single Measure of Use
• Comparing multiple factors tells a more
complete story
– Actions per session
– Use relative to availability
– Intensive vs extensive use
110. Think Broadly
• All subjects get used
• Publication date does not appear to be a
major factor