Future plan about e-book usage

Exactly two-thirds of the survey participants did not use e-books when they completed the questionnaire. Since it would be interesting to see what they plan to do with e-books in the future, Question 8 was designed to find out.

The results show that six of the 18 e-book non-users wish to examine some e-book titles when available in the future. But two would wait until more relevant titles become available. Seven respondents gave replies that included “eyes are damaged by e-reading”, “shall get to e-books eventually”, “wait till they are better to be read on a screen”, “shall wait till cost goes down”, and “not interested in reading e-books as they only read printed books”. The last point was mentioned by three people. Based on the participants’ responses, the overall future perspective for e-book reading does not appear very encouraging. Furthermore, an additional three of the non-users chose to leave this question blank. Out of the 18 e-book non-users, none indicated that they would purchase an e-book by themselves.

Conclusion

E-books are yet to become a major form of publication, even for library students to consume and enjoy, according to the findings of this survey. In addition to improving the quality and reducing the cost, the e-book industry should make more relevant and interesting titles available, along with wider and more effective publicity. As Barry (2001) wrote, for e-books to flourish, the integration of and access to e-items (including e-books) through the OPAC is also essential. Dillon (2001b) confirms the same point.

Finally, the writer would like to remind readers that this non-random survey was conducted only among 27 library science students. The findings must be interpreted in light of this limitation.

Note

  1. Seybold, available at: www.seybold.com


Table IReasons for not using e-books (listed by frequency)


Table IIReasons for using e-books (listed by frequency)


Table IIIReasons for using e-books (listed by ranking)


Table IVReasons for not using e-books (listed by ranking)