College undergraduates still prefer p-books over e-books, study says

[TadW]

Librarian Cynthia L. Gregory surved her students regarding their attitude toward e-books. You can find her findings in the attached study.

Reasons why students had not used an e-book

1. Awareness
"Never heard of them."
"Just found out about them."

2. Preference for Print
"Traditional books are more reliable."
"Books are more convenient."

3. Eyestrain
"Staring at the computer is uncomfortable."
"Don't like reading off computer screen."

4. No Need
"I have just never really had a reason or needed to use an e-book."
"If it's not required, I probably won't use it."

5. Ease of Access
"Hard to access."
"Easier to get a book instead of sitting in front of a computer or printing a lot."

What students LIKE about e-books

1. Convenience
"Don't have to order or check out book."
"Access is easier from home."

2. Cost
"Don't have to ... pay to copy book."
"Don't have to buy the book."

3. Ability to print
"Like printing only pages I need."
"Print pages needed."

What Students DISLIKE about E-Books

1. Searching/navigation
"Menus confusing."
"Dislike searching for them."

2. Eyestrain
"Reading from the screen."
"Screen glare is annoying."

3. Prefer print book
"I would rather have the book on hand."
"Would rather read in bed or on the couch or on the beach--not at a computer."

(Source: Reference & User Services Quarterly 47.3 (Spring 2008): 266(8), reproduction granted for nonprofit, educational use).

[Ervserver]

There are plenty who prefer not to use computers either

[zelda_pinwheel]

based on the circumstances i infer about their use of ebooks (mainly, that they either print them out to read them, or read them on a computer screen), i would prefer paper books as well.

what i find striking about this survey is that it seems to reveal an overwhelming ignorance of and disinterest in ebook technology (e-ink, dedicted readers, formats other than pdf...) among a population which *should* be in the forefront of the cutting edge.

granted, the survey was conducted in 2004, when much of this tech was still in its infancy or still waiting to appear, and not available to the general public, so this is normal. but since then we have seen the advent of many new devices, and the technology has advanced by leaps and bounds.

i would be very interested to see a comparable study done today among the same population, and whether they are more aware of / open to the possibilities of ebooks compared to 4 years earlier.

[ProfJulie]

I teach college courses....Every student who has seen my Cybook thinks it is the coolest thing around. Every student saw the potential of the Cybook and ebooks and they all commented on how much they'd like to lighten their book bags ...

Maybe seeing a tangible example of an ebook reader makes a difference. When I describe my Cybook to people, I see them struggle to understand how it works...but when I pull it out and show it off, they usually "get it" within seconds...and usually the next few words out of their mouth is, "where do I get one of those?"

[MidknytOwl]

I think the main problem is that, as far as I've come across, most people don't know about eInk - I've yet to have a single person I told about buying my Sony as a grad gift to myself have any idea what I was talking about, and I usually started off with "have you heard of the Kindle?" since I figured they may have seen it on Amazon's homepage.

Up until a couple weeks ago I would have agreed with most of the people - no ebooks for me for class either. I was, and would assume most people, would equate it to reading books off the computer, and that is no fun, especially for a textbook. When I've had professors post online some of the readings I've printed them out - partly for readability and partly for highlighting.

I think if before being surveyed they were shown an example of what the possibility was and the answers would be different. I also think though that the real contender would have to be the Iliad or something that was similar - many people like to scribble notes in theirs and I know I highlight my books like crazy and that is a requirement for me. Actually, I downloaded some of the works I still need to read for my Classical Mythology class (ironically, one of which is the Iliad), but I will be reading and studying them from my textbook - the need to highlight justifies carrying around a 1200 page book.

So, I think that we would prefer ebooks if:

• We knew about eInk and such devices
• The devices had the ability to highlight and mark up
• The device price went down a lot (particularly compared to the current price for those that have the ability to highlight and mark up.)
• It was integrated to the point where we knew we would be able to get all of our books in ebook format to justify our expensive device purchase
• The ebooks were considerably cheaper than the p-books, especially since I doubt we'd get the ability to sell it back for a bit of extra cash, which would make it really annoying.

The ability to search alone would be such a time saver and makes a big difference. It would probably in the long run be as much or more profitable to the textbook industry - as much as they love to make us buy new editions every two years when we do used books that money is going to the bookstore or the person online we snagged it from, not to them. This way they can directly make us each buy the book from them. It could potentially have a sell back feature - say you buy it with a timed DRM for the full price, and then at the end of the term you can either keep the book and then they can remove the timed DRM part (or you redownload it or however the technology would have to work) and if not you can get a partial refund and the book dissappears.

Anyway, the potential is there, I just think most of us don't know about it and it isn't worked into the system. Considering my school is on trimesters and you can pay up to $1800 a year in books depending on your major, if the books were actually cheaper than the paper versions it would sell like mad.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by ProfJulie

I teach college courses....Every student who has seen my Cybook thinks it is the coolest thing around. Every student saw the potential of the Cybook and ebooks and they all commented on how much they'd like to lighten their book bags ...

I know there are several colleges that give out iPods or laptops to students. I would love to see a school form a partnership with iRex and give every student an iLiad, and make all text books available for it. Rather than pay for each book sperately there could be an eBook fee, which would be less than the paper books. The ebooks would be good for 4 years of their school term. If the student wants to keep the book permenanty there would be a reduced price for that, or they would get a discount on the paperbook since they paid the ebook fee.

I say iliad because it could support A4 versions of PDFs (although Mobi) would be better and it supports the annotations that you generally make in your books as a student.

BOb

[Razi]

It is all about the price. The day ereaders become affordable, students would forget "the smell of paper" etc. I have found the students at literature departments most vehemently opposed to the ideas of an ereader.

[tirsales]

It's not all about the price - its about accessibility and presentation. Even if those readers would cost "not that much less" then today, a presentation stand at the campus which sells those devices and an "easy to use from the university" e-book-library and shop - and I guess you are set.
Of course, most students I know are studying computer science and, frankly, are a bit on the geaky side of live, but hey - you need geaks to advertise

[bbusybookworm]

Personally at Uni, I would have loved to have had a dedicated reader.
Would have saved me from having to print a ton of articles and studies that were 'required reading'. not to mention all the articles read as research for assignments.
And that as a business student. My friends in literature tended to groan at the no of books they had to carry around and read.

And I was the more concious one in my group, only printing what i really needed, doing most of the reading on my laptop.

The other major problem, besides the lack of knowledge of E-readers, is the problem of getting content onto it.

Most articles available from the major online sources tends to be in PDF, and even in that, non OCR'd PDF, often just straight scans of the journal article. and for most non literature students, that tends to be a large part of the reading required.

Finally, as mentioned by other posters, it has to be easy to get content onto it. Cos a large part of the battle for acceptence will be the ease of use, and the availibilty of content.