Comparing Bananas with Grapes: Ebook Use Data from a Bunch of

Vendors

Joseph KrausUniversity of Denver

Penrose LibraryNovember 6, 2009

Introduction

• I will be putting this presentation onto Slideshare.– http://www.slideshare.net/jokrausdu

• I would like to make this a discussion, not just me talking.

• You can read the paper. This is not just a rehash of individual ebook use and section use data.

• If you want even more data, I will put more book titles on the web somewhere.

• Images are used with CC licenses.

Why did I do this?http://www.flickr.com/photos/auntiep/3083645776/

Why?

• I wanted to get a better sense of what topics the computer science and engineering students and faculty find useful.

• For other projects, I’ve looked at faculty citation data and journal article download data. Since we have been adding many ebook packages, I wanted to analyze our ebook use data.

What’s up with comparing bananas with grapes?

• The vendors provide the data in lots of different ways and formats.

• Tough to analyze the data.• Didn’t want to compare apples with oranges

because they don’t come in bunches.

Info on the bananas

• The bananas are large fruit, and they can’t be eaten in a single bite. These vendors provide section usage. There is no data on individual ebooks.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/revilla/626629815/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/design-dog/1249337589/

Bananas

• Knovel– “Secured Pages Viewed” in their subject areas

• Morgan & Claypool– “Number of Full-text Article Requests (PDF

Requests)” from their Synthesis Lectures series titles.

Info on the grapes

• The grapes are smaller fruit that can be examined and eaten individually. Most vendors provided individual ebook COUNTER compliant usage statistics. The print book circulation data is not COUNTER compliant.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zest-pk/923930277/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rutty/137533513/

Grapes

• CRC ENGnetBASE– Number of “Title Requests”

• eBrary– “Pages Viewed”– “User Sessions”

• ProQuest Safari– Number of “E-Book Uses”

• III print book use data– Total Circulation (internal and external)

Difficulties evaluating the datahttp://www.flickr.com/photos/auntiep/3082810177/

Difficulties evaluating the data

• They have different field titles for ebook use.• The vendors provide different numbers of book titles. – We have about 100 Morgan & Claypool titles, while

ENGnetBASE is over 900, ebrary has over 45,000 titles• They provide different years of coverage. For example, Safari

averages about 2.5 years.• Cost is a factor. Subscription vs. purchase models.• Number of seats or ports (2 seats or unlimited).• Content is viewed and navigated in different ways.• Print book check out times vary (2 hours to one year.)

Did I forget anything?http://www.flickr.com/photos/auntiep/3082809259/

What would I do differently next time?

• Have more catalog records• Get statistics for Books24x7

More changes are aheadhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/auntiep/3083646254/

More changes are ahead

• Springer ebooks• State-wide academic library cooperative collection

development• Patron driven collection development• Google books• Kindle, B&N Nook, Sony eReaders, iPhones, etc.• Book reading behaviors are changing. Are engineers

and CS / IT people ahead of the curve? • Does it depend on the sub-discipline?

Tools to help evaluate the data

• Spreadsheets (What I used for the paper)• ScholarlyStats (We are considering)• Spectra Dimension from Library Dynamics

(Have)• III ERM and SUSHI statistics (Have)– Serials librarian is running this.– http://www.iii.com/news/pr_display.php?id=424 – e-journal usage statistics for the most part

More on Spectra Dimension

• http://www.librarydynamics.com/• http://spectra.librarydynamics.net/services/#

Spectra Dimension

Contact info

• Joseph.kraus@du.edu• www.nuthingbut.net• sci-eng-penrose.blogspot.com• friendfeed.com/jokrausdu• twitter.com/jokrausdu• slideshare.net/jokrausdu