E-book technology firm ebrary, US, has announced that the results of its first 2008 Global Student E-book Survey completed by nearly 6,500 students throughout the world, representing nearly 400 individual institutions. Designed by more than 150 college and university librarians worldwide, the wide-scale survey explores students' usage and perceptions of e-books. ebrary plans to periodically repeat the survey to compare how e-book usage and attitudes among students change over time.
According to the survey e-book usage is at par with print books, with almost equal numbers of students using each type. Fifty-one percent of students would 'very often or often' opt to use electronic versions of books over print versions, compared to 32 percent who 'sometimes' prefer e-books and 17 percent who always use the print version. The report further states that e-books rank among the top resources students consider trustworthy, along with print materials such as books, textbooks, reference (dictionaries, encyclopedias, maps), and journals. Google and other search engines are indicated by the highest number of students for use in research or class assignments. Other top resources include e-books, print books, e-reference resources such as online dictionaries, encyclopedias and maps, and Wikipedia. Fifty-seven percent of students view instruction in information literacy as very important compared with 38 percent who consider it somewhat important and only 5 percent who find it not important.
The survey results are publicly available at no cost. Anyone interested in receiving a digital copy may register at
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=MQw_2bsqqPdvfhhTWvN31Fwg_3d_3d. Printed copies will also be available at ebrary's booth (#1792) at ALA Annual, June 28 to July 1, 2008 in Anaheim, CA, USA.
