Higher Education student pathways to ebook usage and engagement, and understanding: Highways and cul de sacs

Casselden, Biddy and Pears, Richard (2020) Higher Education student pathways to ebook usage and engagement, and understanding: Highways and cul de sacs. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 52 (2). pp. 601-619. ISSN 0961-0006

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Abstract

Ebooks have enthusiastically been adopted by academic libraries, viewed as a golden bullet by library professionals, resulting in efficient resource use, space saving, student satisfaction, and accommodating millennial generation study habits.

A small scale online survey undertaken at Northumbria and Durham Universities investigated students’ ebook use, examining; aspects of learning ebooks support, searching strategies, devices used for ebook access, and reading and use strategies. Ninety-two responses were analysed using a mixed methods approach.

Despite many advantages of ebooks including portability, availability, functionality, and searching, results demonstrated sentiment regarding ebooks was not wholly positive. There were frustrations regarding the complexity of ebook provision, publisher’s restrictions, and the lack of compatibility with reading devices. A key finding related to ebook interrogation which involved greater targeted searching of content, and a ‘bite-size’ approach to reading.

Caution must be observed to ensure that library collections facilitate a complexity of learning styles, and provide opportunities for students to better digest content.

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