JISC Collections April 21, 2023 | Project Board Meeting | Slide 1
JISC Collections Slide 2
What do the findings mean?
Lorraine Estelle, CEO, JISC Collections
www.jiscebooksproject.org
JISC Collections
The largest study of its kind!
Slide 3
– 36 course text e-books freely available to all UK HE
– Over 48,000 responses to benchmarking surveys carried out in January 2008 and in January 2009
– Raw server logs have been analysed to see exactly how users discover, navigate and use the e-books
– Case studies including focus groups held at eight universities
– Library circulation and print sales data has been analysed
JISC Collections
Use patterns
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Ebooks
Non-JISC
JISC
Use of e-books over 24 hours: 25% of use between 6pm and 8am
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Use of e-books over the year: Sharp peaks and deep declines
JISC Collections
Digital Rights Management
We need unlimited concurrency – the spikes are not robots but many students with the same deadline!
DRM systems need to recognise that use of e-books is not spread evenly through the year but is concentrated and in line with the academic timetable and at certain times of the day
We are happy to pay to have the e-books available all year – but pricing must recognise that use is not even
JISC Collections
Where is the use coming from?
31% of off campus use illustrates how important e-books are for home study – so we have got to get the access right
Students told us in the survey the most important benefit of the e-book is 24/7 access
JISC Collections
User behaviour
How much of that e-book did you read online?
I read the whole book I read several whole chapters
I read one whole chapter I dipped in and out of several chapters
I just loked at it very briefly I don’t remember
This shows non-linear use – perhaps a different type of behaviour from the print world?
JISC Collections
Users are not raiding the cookie jar!
13 minute sessions, 8 pages per session
Page view time of 22.8 seconds
85% of users spending less than 1 minute on a page
Dip in and out of e-books, only using sections of it, non linear use
E-books are being used to scan through or reference for short periods of time
Probably indicates that if a user wants to read in a consistent, frequent or linear way they will still buy the print – and that e-books are for ‘just in time’ or remote use
JISC Collections
Discoverability
What makes e-books successful is having the MARC records in the OPAC so that students can discover them along with other material on their reading lists. The DLA and the survey data supports this.
Getting the MARC records right was one of the biggest challenge of this project!
JISC Collections
Why buy?
Why do librarians want to buy e-books?
– Take the pressure off short loan collections
– To manage the high peaks of use
– To provide for their off campus users whether they be distance learners, students at home or on a placement
– Equality of access
Librarians want e-books to CO-EXIST and SUPPLEMENT their print
‘I think it’s mainly the issue of availability – it depends on providing the extra access for short periods of time….so that you are providing supplementary access for things that are on reading lists – or in short loan; so everyone is getting access to them’
JISC Collections
Business Models
The data (including the sales data) indicates that making available course text e-books free at the point of use is not a threat to print sales revenue
There has been no negative impact on the sales of hard copies and no negative impact on the use of print copies in the short loan collection. Students are using e-books in addition to the print they bought or borrowed!
A new pricing model for e-books must reflect the use of e-books is different, the uneven use, user behaviour
The e-book: A threat or the chance to grow a new market?
JISC Collections
A Fair Formula
Enable publishers to grow this market and enable libraries to provide a consistent and essential service to students, particularly those students that require remote access
A fair and sustainable metric
Transparent modelling looking at the cost to a publisher, the actual use and the benefits to a library
Could be applied to a number of access models