are ebooks used equally across the disciplines? teddy gray, duke university alex carroll, university...

Are Ebooks Used Equally Across the Disciplines?  

Teddy Gray, Duke University

Alex Carroll, University of Maryland

TRLN Annual Meeting

July 22, 2013

Increasing Importance of Ebooks

Duke has acquired over 13,000 titles on the ebrary platform since 2008

Titles are spread across all LC classes Titles have been acquired through:

Approval plan Firm orders Demand Driven Acquisitions (DDA)

Assumptions to Test

Ebooks have greater use by science patrons than humanities patrons

Science patrons are more interested in downloading chapters

Humanities patrons are more interested in downloading full titles

Data Used

Number of user sessions per title Number of chapter downloads per title Number of full title downloads per title Cost per title All were mapped against LC class Tried to capture usage along with intensity of

usage

Title Breakdown

Titles Purchased by Year

2008 2009 2010 2011 20120

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

Titles by LC Class

H P B Q D J T E G L M R F N0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

Usage Results

Titles with Use

R F N B Q M G E H D P T J L0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

Sessions per Title

Q R E F B H G N J D M L T P0

1

2

3

4

5

6

Page Views per Session

L R E H Q F T D G M B J N P0

5

10

15

20

25

Sessions per Chapter Download

Q T R J B D F H E G P N M L0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

Sessions per Full Title Download

P B T Q N D G J M H R E L0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Usage and Cost Results

Cost per Title

F E M N P D G H J L B R Q T$0

$20

$40

$60

$80

$100

$120

$140

Cost per Session

R F E Q N B G H M D J P L T$0

$10

$20

$30

$40

$50

$60

$70

Cost per Download

R Q F B E H J D G T N P M L$0

$100

$200

$300

$400

$500

$600

$700

Results

Biggest divide between humanities and sciences: Sessions per title Sessions per chapter downloads Cost per download

Results

R and Q titles: consistent high usage E and F titles: good usage and low costs T titles: low usage but high downloads P titles: low usage but highest full title

downloads Perhaps platform influenced the results

Sessions per Downloadby Platform

ebrary EBL0

1

2

3

4

Thank You