UK survey points to high growth in eBooks over the next year
Birmingham, UK, 21 November 2008—A recent survey in the UK conducted by NetLibrary; OCLC’s eContent division has found that three-quarters of academic libraries and half of public libraries that responded intend to increase their collections of eBooks over the next year, in spite of the current fiscal climate.
Nearly 300 libraries responded to the survey highlighting key issues in perceptions and usage of eBooks currently and going forward within the UK.
Although the survey indicates significant planned increases in the acquisition of eBooks for both academic and public libraries, other key themes born out of the survey findings provide valuable insights into what is driving usage and collection development in these two key sectors.
A massive 85% of public Libraries responding to the survey indicated that they were most interested in developing fiction eBook collections despite recent research that suggests eBooks are most often used for reference purposes. Possibly this trend is being fuelled by the growth in take up and availability of eBook reading devices among public library users such as Amazon’s Kindle and Sony’s Reader. Similarly a rise in the usage of MP3 players could be attributed to the fact that 65% of publics also indicated an intention to further develop their eAudiobook collections:
“eAudiobooks are an area of significant interest to NetLibrary” explains Michelle Harper, Global Product Manager for eBooks and eAudiobooks, “The imminent release of our new Media Center application will support libraries in the promotion of eAudiobooks to users. It’s a free application that will make it faster and easier for your users to search, manage, and listen to NetLibrary eAudiobooks through a range of devices”.
Of the academic libraries who responded to the survey, half indicated that their use of eBooks was to support their core reading lists in various subject areas – the main ones being Business / Management (13%), Medicine / Health (9%) Education (6%) and Engineering (5%).
Michelle Harper continues: ‘NetLibrary offers a range of bundled titles in these subject areas. Our custom collection service also provides titles specifically tailored to your library’s collection development requirements’.
Anyone interested in hearing more about the results of this survey or how NetLibrary can help them in their collection development should contact uk@oclc.org.
About OCLC
Founded in 1967 and headquartered in Dublin, Ohio, OCLC is a nonprofit library service and research organization that has provided computer-based cataloging, reference, resource sharing, eContent, preservation, library management and Web services to 60,450 libraries in 112 countries and territories. OCLC and its member libraries worldwide have created and maintain WorldCat, the world’s richest online resource for finding library materials. For more information, visit www.oclc.org.
OCLC NetLibrary provides content and technical delivery solutions to institutional libraries, corporations and government agencies that facilitate the purchase, management and distribution of research, reference, digital learning and general interest content via Web-based technologies. NetLibrary’s eContent solution is the most broadly adopted in the market, making more than 170,000 eBooks, 6,000 eJournals, 7,500 eAudiobooks, and 83 databases available through more than 16,000 libraries worldwide. For more information, visit www.oclc.org/netlibrary/.
Find out more about OCLC
OCLC, NetLibrary and WorldCat are trademarks and/or service marks of OCLC, Inc.
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For more information:
Anyone interested in hearing more about the results of this survey or how NetLibrary can help them in their collection development should contact uk@oclc.org.
See also:
UK NetLibrary Survey Results
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