eBooks and Students

At ALA ebrary announced the results of the 2008 Global Student E-book Survey, completed by nearly 6,500 college and university students and designed by more than 150 librarians, is now publicly available at no cost. To receive a digital copy, you register at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=V6KfjUjiRPtGyJYmHINDRg_3d_3d
Key findings of the 2008 Global Student E-book Survey include the following:
• On research or class assignments, e-book usage is on 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% who “sometimes” prefer e-books and 17% who always use
the print version.
• 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% who consider it somewhat important and only 5% who find it not important.
An interesting addition to the research as we watch the variant ebook adoption rates in different markets, in various genres, and in different topical domains and geographies. All we know is that it’s growing.
Then again, Seth Godin as an interesting perspective, or at least 18 questions, too. Read it here. Question number one is: “Let me see the percentage of people who have bought a book and actually finished reading it. (The Kindle knows, right?) Even better, let me see Kindle books that are finished by people who finish books that I finish! ”
Stephen