Chris Armstrong has been invited by Bibliothek
& Information Deutschland to speak at their annual Congress
of Information and Library in Leipzig. His paper on e-books and
libraries is:
e-Books and e-Book readers - can libraries
manage them?
Chris Armstrong1
and Ray Lonsdale2
1 Information Automation Limited and
2 Department of Information Studies,
University of Wales, Aberystwyth
Abstract
The very nature of the e-book, its virtual presence and unfamiliar
format, have led to a relatively slow acceptance by users. To date,
virtually no serious studies of e-book use and usage have been conducted,
and so librarians acquire, and make available, e-books in the hope
that the investment will be repaid in use. Readers (human) find
it difficult to accept the need for readers (handhelds or PCs),
and many librarians are more comfortable with books on shelves!
With the arrival on the scene of the new generation of e-book readers,
management issues become more complex.
Managing collections of e-books raises a number
of specific issues; and, through a number of studies, we have monitored
the e-book industry – from the librarians perspective –
since the mid-nineties. Our work has offered us the opportunity
to talk to hundreds of university and school librarians, and it
is the concerns voiced by them which will be presented in the talk.
Not the least of these, is the difficulty of discovering the availability
of new titles. Other issues surrounding the management of e-book
collection include: acquisition and licensing, access and promotion,
the infrastructure, and evaluation.
References
Hernon, Peter; Hopper, Rosita; Leach, Michael
R.; Saunders, Laura L. and Zhang, Jane (2007) E-book Use by Students:
Undergraduates in Economics, Literature, and Nursing. Journal
of Academic Librarianship 33 (1): 3-13
Ismail, Roesnita and Zainab A.N. (2005) The Pattern
of e-Book Use amongst Undergraduates in Malaysia: A case of to know
is to use. Malaysian Journal of Library & Information Science
10 (2): 1-23.
Just, Peter (2007) Electronic books in the USA
– their numbers and development and a comparison to Germany.
Library Hi Tech 25 (1): 157-164
Rowlands, Ian; Nicholas, David; Jamali, Hamid
R. and Huntington, Paul (2007) What do faculty and students really
think about e-books? Learned Publishing [Due] April 2007.
PowerPoint
for talk [large file]
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