books in university libraries: electronic or paper That is the debate today I want to bring across this blog article. And I'll do it through an electronic journal article "Evidence based Library and Information Practice", by Pamela S. Morgan, a librarian dedicated to information resources in the Library of Health Sciences at Memorial University of Newfoundland (Canada). I think it's a very interesting topic, which goes beyond the purely academic and whose conclusions can be transferred to other university libraries.
The emergence of electronic publishing in academic libraries in recent years has been widespread. The move to electronic form is almost completely accepted in the journals. Instead, it is less clear what happens with books.
Different studies carried out so far are contradictory and can be summarized in the following points:
"If the titles of printed books are not very requested by users, their electronic counterparts also have very little use .
-The choice of materials is key when you purchased electronic books have a significant movement.
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eBooks have a greater circulation than paper, which does not mean they are most read. That is, more query involves more reading. In fact, users typically tend to read in its entirety or at least more pages of printed books to electronic books.
-A comparison of electronic books and printed books about their use is a complicated issue. One reason is that is not well defined what is an electronic use or how to compare it with the circulation of printed books.
This study is referred specifically to the field of Health Sciences, on which there has been little specific studies. This has been done on the Library of Health Sciences, Memorial University of Newfoundland (Canada), who is attending the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy, with 1500 students and 130 teachers, which gives us some variables that may differentiate the results and conclusions to be reached in this study compared to the English (though the differences will become increasingly smaller with the European Higher Education Area).
At the time of the study, the lack of a single format when receiving statistics is an obstacle to research. An example of this is that the statistics provided by Ovid only provided data on visits, not unique visitors, unlike the data provided by MD Consult and Stat Ref!, The other two e-book service which is Library subscribes to the University of Alberta.
data printed titles were obtained through loan statistics ILS (Integrated Library Management System) Sirsi Unicorn.
has been shown that, gradually, the use of print titles has declined, reaching a situation where 27% of the texts of study have not been use. The texts used are those of Pharmacy.
regard to the texts in electronic format, its use has increased year by year. The most common by far were the Pharmacy, in part because they are used regularly in a laboratory course.
Majority, the incorporation of the electronic version has not affected the pattern of the same titles in print. So much so that 72% of the printed version of the texts has not shown changes in its use. Has dropped only 6% of the securities. And indeed, increased use of 5% of printed texts. The situation 17% of print titles is questionable, since in recent years its use has varied greatly from year to year as attributable to the acquisition of the electronic version.
an issue that is interesting about this article: how the editors removed some titles for individual purchase, and incorporate them into a database. Thus, if a library wants to purchase these titles, you need to buy access to the database, the greater its cost.
The use of electronic versions of texts seems to continue to grow in the coming years. To this is so, will positively influence the gradual increased familiariedad of students with digital versions, the promotion of librarians through courses of instruction in information literacy and favorable consideration of teachers, whose opinion has much more impact than the librarians.
On the other hand, the acquisition of electronic versions seems to have had little impact on the use of the printed version. Of the 82 titles examined, only 5 appear to have had a lower utilization during the study period, and there has been a steep decline. Therefore, the study says that the versions print still have a place in the field of Health Sciences.
Another aspect to consider, linked above, is the significant decrease in the reserve collection titles. These are texts which demand is high, so you have several copies. The study shows that loans for these securities has declined significantly.
These data indicate that further studies are needed to determine whether the use of case studies is in decline. This requires having a prolonged statistics over a long period of time. Something that does not provide many publishers.
COUNTER statistics provided by could help solve this problem, as they provide a standardized statistics and ensure constant posting of electronic resources from different publishers. However, COUNTER reports for electronic monographs will have more later and do not provide historical data. So while not a single method available for statistics from different vendors, it is impossible to make direct comparisons between e-book packages.
addition, we have the problem of the definition of "use." E-books, each access treated as a loan, without separate reference to the uniqueness of the user (check only one), renewals, chapters used, etc.
Accounting, not access to the title, but by access to a chapter of a book does not seem a good way to measure usage, and that exaggerate the use of electronic books on the circulation of printed texts . A more appropriate measurement system could be through IP addresses, accounting for use by each uninterrupted access to a resource. However, this system is the problem of automatic disconnections made free servers e when it is a long time online. Says it would be interesting to conduct a study on this issue and to clarify what are the most certain evidence of use of an electronic resource.
The conclusions reached by the study are:
- The Library of Health Sciences should continue to purchase electronic books on the topics concerning the scope . Electronic books are widely used and their use continues to grow, unlike printed books, the evolution of the movement is static. In addition, the digital edition has advantages obvious reference to remote use because it allows multiple users to your inquiry. We must also bear in mind that usually updated more regularly than the print edition.
- selection electronic texts (as is the case with the forms) manifests itself as an essential task . Just the fact that a text is in digital format does not imply that it will be consulted. If a printed book is not consulted, the digital version will not be consulted. This directly concerns the choice of e-book packages.
"It is also fundamental promotion of electronic texts by teachers . This important factor can be complemented by the work of instruction and reference librarians.
"Given the low use of reserve collections once you have the electronic version suggested allocating economic resources to the acquisition of electronic texts, rather than printed texts . This is especially meant for general reference texts (especially when it comes to texts whose consultation is selective, ie the user wants to read a specific chapter, not the entire book) for subjects by students. They expect every time Moreover, as evidence of the reserve collection are available electronically.
"Anyway, the importance of printed books can not be ignored . Despite the acquisition of the electronic version, using the printed edition is remaining stable, as we said before.
"In any case, the apparent low overall use of the print collection and accessibility of electronic texts indicate that electronic texts have to replace much of the printed books . It is considered necessary to conduct a comprehensive review of the print collection to confirm that the low use is generalized to the entire collection and, therefore, take steps to fully develop the electronic monograph collection.
