When it comes to ebooks, social sciences far outperform humanities and STM in the percentage of titles used and the average amount of use per book. However, users working with ebooks on STM subjects tend to be more active with their books in each session,
"This is a particularly enlightening study because it dispels the widely-held notion that STM ebooks get higher usage," said Levine-Clark. "Data provided by leading aggregators now shows us the importance of ebooks to research in the social sciences."
Levine-Clark's research also revealed the importance of quality content to users and that they prefer titles from university presses to those from other publishers. "University press ebooks are used at a higher rate by all measures," said Levine-Clark. "Users of ebooks appear to be making some judgment about quality."
The data set from ebrary and EBL was anonymized and provided to Levine-Clark in the aggregate. Collected over the course of three to four years, the data encompassed more than 7,000 libraries and included more than a half-million titles. Within the data, Levine-Clark explored sessions and user activities, such as views, printing, copying and full-title downloads. His findings are being captured in a white paper that will be available on both the ebrary and EBL websites in March.
Levine-Clark's presentation is Friday, January 24, 4:00pm, in room 203A of the Philadelphia Convention Center. The initial findings being presented are aimed at benchmarking usage trends. Subsequent analysis will dive further into key areas and identify patterns useful for libraries and consortia for local planning.
About ProQuest ebrary and EBL - Ebook Library
Encompassing pioneering companies ebrary and EBL - Ebook Library, ProQuest's ebook businesses enable works from the world's most authoritative publishers to be accessed electronically, online and offline, by libraries worldwide. With more than 24 years of combined experience partnering with libraries, publishers and researchers around the globe, ProQuest's ebrary and EBL offer the industry's most robust content selection and most innovative acquisition models. Only ProQuest provides libraries with so many choices to support their current workflow, optimize their budget and effectively serve end users.
Generated via ebrary's and EBL's relationships with 600+ publishers, 500,000+ titles that serve the unique research needs of students, scholars, professionals and other information seekers are available through platforms renowned for flexibility. Libraries can customize their ebook collections to precisely fit with their users. Demand-driven and Patron-driven Acquisition models enable libraries to catalog and display thousands of titles, purchasing only if patrons download and use the works.
About ProQuest (www.proquest.com)
ProQuest connects people with vetted, reliable information. Key to serious research, the company's products are a gateway to the world's knowledge including dissertations, governmental and cultural archives, news, historical collections and ebooks. ProQuest technologies serve users across the critical points in research, helping them discover, access, share, create and manage information.
The company's cloud-based technologies offer flexible solutions for librarians, students and researchers through the ProQuest®, Bowker®, Dialog®, ebrary® and EBL® businesses - and notable research tools such as the Summon® discovery service, the ProQuest FlowTM collaboration platform, the PivotTM research development tool and the IntotaTM library services platform. The company is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with offices around the world.