Behaviours of students across the UK are being observed in the UK’s first national e-book observatory, which will provide empirical data about the use of e-books in 127 universities.

The launch of new reading devices means that the e-book might finally take off in the consumer market, but what about the academic user? E-book publishers and sellers should not run before they can walk; they need to understand the behaviours and learning styles of the modern student.

JISC is funding the national e-books observatory project to provide publishers and e-book aggregators with a picture of how students use their course texts in the digital environment. The outcomes of the research will help inform the creation of business models as well as the future format of e-books, based on the real needs of the users.

Lorraine Estelle CEO of JISC Collections says this is a unique project, “This is the first time that a national study of this type has been run. The initial observations challenge many of our assumptions about how we believe students use e-books. For example, in the first user survey that received over 22,000 responses, 62% of students reported that they read online whilst only 6% said they print to read. The survey also indicated that interactivity may not be as important to students as we consider it to be. Students say that main attraction is that e-books are more accessible than print books, meaning that users can get at them wherever they are and at whatever time they like.”

Before students start to buy e-book reading devices, publishers need to make course books available online, test their assumptions and understand their student audience. Publishers and libraries must also work together to develop models that will enable the transition from print to online.

The JISC national e-books observatory project will help publishers and libraries do just that.
It is not only looking at student behaviours across the whole of the UK, but at the impact on print sales to students, when the electronic version is available from the university library.

The outcomes of the research will be published in spring 2009.

Ends

Notes to editors:
• JISC Collections works with publishers and aggregators to licence online content to support academic teaching, learning and research in UK higher and further education institutions. www.jisc-collections.ac.uk

• For further information on the JISC national e-books observatory project please visit www.jiscebooksproject.org or contact Caren Milloy, Project Manager at JISC Collections on c.milloy@jisc.ac.uk

• For further information on JISC Collections please contact Brian Mitchell, Marketing Manager on b.mitchell@jisc.ac.uk

• For further information on JISC please contact Rebecca O’Brien public relations officer on r.obrien@jisc.ac.uk

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The study will review and analyse current business models available for course texts and e-textbooks and following a range of discussions, identify up to six business models for trial. Publishers, e-book aggregators and HE institutions will be invited to participate in the trials and awarded funding in recognition of the time and effort required to implement and monitor the trial. It is anticipated that the trials will start in January 2009. Case studies will be produced on each trial and a final report with recommendations made available.

The core aims of the study are:

• To analyse the economics of a selection of business models for e-textbooks and course text e-books in terms of impact on publisher print sales / revenue and library budgets
• To assess the management of a selection of business models for e-textbooks and course text e-books in terms of administrative burden and ease of implementation
• To make recommendations about business models for e-textbooks and course texts e-books following the trials that are sustainable both in terms of profitability and value for money

JISC Collections is looking for a consultant to manage the study. The consultant must have previous experience in economic modelling, an understanding and knowledge of the e-books market and higher education libraries and an understanding of the economics associated with e-book business models.

The consultancy will start in October 2008 and run till September 2009. Funding of up to £50,000 is available and the deadline for the receipt of proposals is 12 noon on Friday 19 September 2008. Proposal and questions should be sent to Caren Milloy on c.milloy@jisc.ac.uk

Read the call for consultancy

JISC Collections and CIBER invite librarians to attend the DLA workshop. The workshop will provide librarians with an update on the project and the findings from the DLA study thus far. Librarians will be invited to share and discuss their opinions on the study and to explore the possibility of real time experiments.

Date: 23rd June 2008
Time: Registration from 10.30 - 11am. Workshop will start at 11am and end by 3pm.
Location: Room 218, Chadwick Building, Second Floor, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT
Directions: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/about-ucl/location/maps/map2_hi_res
Who should attend?: Librarians from institutions participating in the JISC national e-books observatory project.
Book your place: Please register your attendance by completing the DLA workshop registration form below:

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I was pleased that there is such a high level of interest from FE in e-books as JISC Collections is currently putting together a proposal for the LSC that may mean that we do an e-books for FE project so keep an eye out for further information.

Many people were still thinking about platforms so I wanted to highlight the JISC Collections Academic Database Assessment Tool (ADAT). In ADAT you can compare the functionality and standards compliance of the e-books aggregator platforms so take a look!

I also want to mention the JISC Collections for Schoolsproject. This project is licensing collections of online resources for the schools market, there are e-books, databases, images and so on. It’s a great project, not just because it is widening access but because it will help teach children about the importance of information literacy. Students need to learn at a much younger age about searching skills, information literacy and how to discern quality material. If you want further information on the Schools project do visit the website.

The last thing I wanted to say was that if you have a question, do ask me! I will hopefully be able to guide you in the right direction.

1. Findings from the first user survey
The findings from the first user survey have been published. We had over 20,000 submissions (sorry if I keep on harping on about this but it really is phenomenal!) You can read the final report as a pdf or request a print copy of it from me - c.milloy@jisc.ac.uk

2. Winner of the £200 prize
I am pleased to announce that the winner of the £200 prize available as part of the user survey is Chris Hulbert from Aberystwyth University. Congratulations to Chris!

3. UKSG Conference - what did the publishers think librarians think?
The UKSG conference this year was down in Torquay and despite the engineering works and the snow making the journey down quite slow it was well worth it. I woke every morning to the sun shining on the sea - beautiful! I ran two workshops that were attended mostly by publishers. I presented the findings from the E-books UK Roadshow workshops and then asked the publishers to do a little exercise. I asked them to place the key drivers (that were identified by librarians on the roadshow as crucial to reaching their utopias) in the order of importance that the librarians placed them in. None of them got it quite right but it was a fun exercise and I will be writing it up shortly. In the meantime, you can see my presentation and the correct order for the drivers.

4. JISC national e-textbook debate
If you couldn’t attend the debate please do visit the Libraries of the Future blog where you can read the live text, listen to the audio and make your own comments.

5. Workshops on accessibility, ISBNs and Metadata & e-book authors
I have identified three areas where I will be holding workshops. The first is accessibility as there has been a lot happening and we all know the potential for e-books. At this point I would like to mention the recently launched http://www.techdis.ac.uk/getaltformat which is a great guide to getting hold of textbooks in electronic format. The second workshop will be on metadata and the supply chain, stressing the importance of the ISBN for e-books and the third workshop will be on the role of the author in the future of e-books and open access. Dates are not set yet but please do keep an eye out and again, let me know if you are interested in attending by emailing me at c.milloy@jisc.ac.uk

6. Library and Information Show
I will be at the show on Thursday 24th running a session so do catch me if you want to talk to me - 07817030769

and last but not least….

7. COUNTER stats
I am still working on this so please bear with me if you are having problems in accessing your stats.

I think that’s all for now! More to come shortly.

If you missed the debate fear not! you can listen to the audio or visit the live blog that has all the text and leave your comments.

JISC National E-textbook Debate

Begins: Mon, 14 Apr 2008 at 5:30 PM

Ends: Mon, 14 Apr 2008 at 7:00 PM

Entry fee: No fee

Location:

Kingston Theatre, Austin Court

80 Cambridge Street

Birmingham B1 2NP

England

Link: JISC National E-textbook Debate

Tags: e-books, e-textbooks, debate, libraries, publishers, authors

It was a pleasure to meet you all and I hope that you found the workshops enjoyable and informative and had a little bit of fun imagining the future of e-textbooks.

My task now is to pull together all the key themes, ideas and concerns from the workshops into something more comprehensive that I can share with yourselves, publishers and aggregators.

Until then, I know that many of you were keen to get the presentation from the workshop so here it is: JISC E-books UK Roadshow Presentation