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E-books versus print: User preferences for Canadian
books at two universities
Pamela Jacobs Liaison/Collections Assessment
Librarian, Brock University
Wendy Rodgers Humanities Liaison Librarian
Memorial University of Newfoundland
Internet Librarian Conference
Monterey, CA
October 18, 2011 cc dano (flickr)
3000 km apart…
St. Catharines, ON
14,472 FTE
St. John’s, NL
14,929 FTE
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What’s the big deal?
Canadian Publishers’ Collection (CPC)
from Gibson Library Connections
Part of CRKN Consortial Agreement
> 8000 backlist titles from 47 publishers
Licensing = perpetual access, multi-user
Titles accessible via catalogue links to
Ebrary
Focus on social sciences &
humanities Sociology
5% Religion
5% Business & Economics
11%
History 18%
Literature 17%
Political Science
5%
Other 39%
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Focus on university presses McGill-Queen’s
UP 16%
University of Toronto Press
16%
Dundurn Publishing
Group 8% Les Presses de
l’Université du Québec
7%
UBC Press 7%
WLU Press 6%
Other 40%
What we measured
E-books
◦ “Request” = Single instance of use of a title,
from COUNTER Book Report 2
◦ “Title used” = Yes or no
Print books
◦ “Circulation” = Checkouts and renewals,
including reserves
◦ “Title used” = Yes or no
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Examining electronic use
cc Christine (flickr)
Overall electronic usage 2009
Brock MUN
Requests (COUNTER) 74176 116692
Titles Used 1100 1611
Titles with No Usage 7031 6520
Total CPC titles 8131 8131
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A closer look: Demographics
St. Catharines, ON
FTE - 14,472
◦ 13,541 undergraduate
◦ 931 graduate
SSHRC $1.7 M
Limited distance
education
St. John’s, NL
FTE - 14,929
◦ 13,046 undergraduate
◦ 1,883 graduate
SSHRC $3.3 M
Well-established
distance education
A closer look: Geography
53,000 square miles of southern Ontario
156,000 square miles of Newfoundland (island) & Labrador
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Percentage of titles used
Both 5%
Neither 71%
Brock 9%
MUN 15%
Popular titles at both schools
Cold War Canada: The Making of a National
Insecurity State, 1945-1957, UT Press, 1996
Lessons from NAFTA: The High Cost of Free Trade, Cdn. Centre for Policy Alternatives, 2003
First Nations? Second Thoughts, MQUP, 2009
The Making of the Mosaic: A History of Canadian
Immigration Policy, UT Press, 1998
Tales from Under the Rim: The Marketing of Tim
Hortons, Goose Lane Editions, 2003
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Top 10 requested titles: Brock Title Requests
Short History of Quebec (MQUP) 11363
Judicial Power and Canadian Democracy (MQUP) 4220
From the Ashes of My Dreams (Flanker Press) 2403
Weird Sex & Snowshoes: And Other Canadian Film Phenomena (Raincoast) 2134
Early Modern Social Theory: Selected Interpretative Readings (Canadian Scholars' Press and Women's Press) 2000
Cruise Ship Blues: The Underside of the Cruise Industry (New Society) 1904
Due Process and Victims' Rights: The New Law and Politics of Criminal
Justice (UT Press) 1435
Game in the Garden: A Human History of Wildlife in Western Canada
to 1940 (UBC Press) 1165
Women Do This Every Day: Selected Poems of Lillian Allen (Canadian Scholars' Press and Women's Press) 1126
Icy Battleground: Canada, the International Fund for Animal Welfare,
and the Sea (Breakwater Books) 1081
Top 10 requested titles: MUN Title Requests
A Place to Belong: Community Order and Everyday Space in Calvert,
Newfoundland (MQUP) 14878
Community Mental Health in Canada: Policy, Theory, and Practice (UBC
Press) 2047
Aquatic Invertebrates of Alberta (U. Alberta Press) 1837
Retrenchment and Regeneration in Rural Newfoundland (UT Press) 1742
Governing Education (UT Press) 1587
A History and Ethnography of the Beothuk (MQUP) 1368
Dictionary of Newfoundland English: Second Edition with Supplement (UT Press) 1031
Passeggiata and Popular Culture in an Italian Town: Folklore and the
Performance of Modernity (MQUP) 986
The Miners of Wabana: The Story of the Iron Ore Miners of Bell Island (Breakwater Books) 961
The Chronicle of Zuqnin (Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies) 920
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Percentage of titles used by
province of publisher
0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 60.0% 70.0% 80.0%
NL
NS
NB
QC
ON
MB
AB
BC
MUN BROCK
Comparing print and e-use
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What we examined
Titles held in both formats from:
◦ University of Toronto Press (UTP)
◦ McGill-Queen’s University Press (MQUP)
◦ Published in 1990-1991 and 2005-2007
Titles used during 2009-2010
What was used in 2009-2010
Usage of CPC titles by selected publishers available in
both formats
Print Electronic
n Titles used % of n
Titles used % of n
Brock 301 138 46 81 27
MUN 289 113 38 117 40
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Does rate of use differ by year of
publication?
Usage by publication year
Print Electronic
n Titles used % of n
Titles used % of n
Brock 1990-91 143 44 30.8 35 24.5
2005-07 158 94 59.5 46 29.1
MUN 1990-91 149 44 29.5 44 29.5
2005-07 140 69 49.3 73 52.1
Does rate of use differ by publisher?
Usage by publisher
Print Electronic
n Titles used % of n
Titles used % of n
Brock UTP 115 59 51.3 41 35.7
MQUP 186 79 42.5 40 21.5
MUN UTP 111 56 50.5 54 48.6
MQUP 178 57 32.0 63 35.4
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What did we learn?
Titles are used in both formats at both
schools
MUN showed overall more electronic
usage despite having similar FTE to Brock
Brock users showed a preference for
MUN users showed equal preference for
print and electronic
MUN – preference for NL publishers
Implications of the study
Local context matters
Generalizing usage results between
institutions is problematic
Questioning “big deal” collections vs. local
selection
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Themes for further exploration
Snapshot of an emerging technology –
need longitudinal studies
Compare format preferences between
backlist and frontlist titles
More data needed for titles in social
sciences and humanities
Thank you!