E-book Use and Value in the Humanities: Scholars’ Practices and Expectations

Chrzastowski, Tina; Wiley, Lynn

doi:10.5860/lrts.59n4.172

Cited by 16 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…However, for many humanities scholars, particularly those working with large datasets or who conduct research in digital spaces, daily practices are changing. Although humanities scholars continue to value and use physical resources (e.g., Baruchson‐Arbib & Bronstein, ; Martin & Quan‐Haase, ; Rimmer, Warwick, Blandford, Gow, & Buchanan, ) and some scholars may prefer reading in print (e.g., Kachaluba, Brady, & Critten, ), e‐books are used by many humanities scholars (e.g., Chrzastowski & Wiley, ) and digital texts are an increasingly integral part of their scholarship (e.g., Borgman, ; Kachaluba et al, ). Despite their increasing importance, problems with digital texts may remain, such as issues with authority (Sinn & Soares, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Information technology and the humanities scholar: Documenting digital research practices

Given

Willson

2018

Asso for Info Science & Tech

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Digital tools offer new affordances and methodologies to humanities scholars' research. This study used a constructivist grounded theory approach to examine humanities scholars' research practices, including their use of a wide range of resources and digital technologies. Using in-depth study, several themes emerged from the research relating to the role of technology in shaping humanities scholars' research practices. The themes include: (a) humanities scholars' research approaches and technology tools; (b) the humanities scholar as tool developer; (c) the role of data preparation as a meta-level research practice; (d) data visualization versus numeric outputs-one size does not fit all; (e) the importance of flexibility and agency; (f) technology tools in support of the researcher as writer; and (g) working alone/working together-technology tools and collaborative practice. The heterogeneous nature of humanities scholars' research practices are explored and the resulting implications for digital tool design. Two new research practices-tool development and data preparation-are proposed. The diverse digital technologies humanities scholars use support the traditional ways of working within their discipline, as well as creating potential for new scholarly practices.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Information technology and the humanities scholar: Documenting digital research practices

Given

Willson

2018

Asso for Info Science & Tech

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“…11 However, Chrzastowski and Wiley emphasize that "uses" under this distinction, even if relatively brief, are still valuable for discovery or other tasks. 12 Thus they argue that the relatively high frequency of brief uses among humanists as compared to more immersive (reading) uses does not signal low value of e-books for this population. Related to user needs and tasks, D'Ambra, Wilson, and Akter have explored the task-technology fit (TTF) model in relation to e-book use, predicting academic task, technology characteristics, and individual characteristics will shape use of e-books and impact performance.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Format Shift: Information Behavior and User Experience in the Academic E-book Environment

Tracy¹

2018

RUSQ

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This article seeks to understand information behavior in the context of the academic e-book user experience, shaped by a disparate set of vendor platforms licensed by libraries. These platforms vary in design and affordances, yet studies of e-book use in an academic context often treat e-books as a unified phenomenon in opposition to print books. Based on participant diaries tracking e-book information behavior and follow-up interviews and focus groups on troubleshooting and format shifting behaviors, this study seeks to provide a deep qualitative look at decisions that academic users make about formats when encountering e-books. It identifies reasons for noted disparities between stated user preferences for print books while often using e-books instead. It also demonstrates the importance of considering e-books as a set of formats, rather than a unified experience, when evaluating e-book platforms or providing information services around a set of platforms. While e-book studies often point to a distinction between “use” of e-books and “reading” of print books by users, this study shows much more willingness to both use and read e-books for some tasks if platforms allow for offloading reading of content to preferred reading devices and apps. This has implications for collection development, advocacy with vendors, and for marketing to or consulting with users about e-book access and use options.

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“…Chrzastowski (2011) noted that the use of e-books is more profound in the physical and life sciences disciplines as compared to the use trends prevalent in the social sciences and humanities. Chrzastowski and Wiley (2015) reported that researchers in the humanities lagged behind researchers in other fields in the use of e-books, due to the different levels of reading required in the humanities disciplines. Staiger (2012) observed that users prefer print books for in-depth reading – referred to as immersive reading – while e-books are appropriate resources for retrieving specific and pinpointed information.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Sprague and Hunter (2008) noted that students in the disciplines of library sciences, economics and business are favourably inclined towards using e-books. Thus, e-book publishers try to tap the potential of e-book market for gaining maximum profit by tagging high price for e-books (Chrzastowski and Wiley, 2015). There is a good chance of availability of e-books in disciplines where e-books are preferred and demanded.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

E-book and print book price and desirability for university libraries: a comparative study

Rao

Kumar

Tripathi

2018

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to compare the prices of print and electronic versions of the same scholarly titles charged from a university library. This study also examines whether preferences for print or electronic formats differ with disciplines and whether high preferences for the electronic version in particular disciplines lead to tagging of high prices for e-books in those disciplines. This study evaluates association in prices of e-books and their print versions for scholarly books. It also explains trends in gaps of prices of electronic and their print versions over the time to understand changing price policy of e-books with time. Design/methodology/approach This is a case study analysing and interpreting prices of 717 book titles available in electronic and print versions out of 1248 book titles recommended by the faculty members of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in early 2014. The minimum prices quoted by publishers or aggregators for these books became the secondary data for the study. The research methodology is based on quantitative descriptive and inferential statistical techniques. Findings The study statistically rejected the hypothesis that price tags of electronic and print versions of books do not differ significantly. E-books are usually more expensive than their print counterparts. They are more highly priced in disciplines, where the users prefer electronic books over the print ones. There is a moderate association in prices of electronic and their print versions; libraries can estimate about the budget which would be required for procuring books in electronic format with the help of price of print version; however, the accuracy of this stipulation would be only 20 per cent. The study has highlighted that 95.4 per cent of the scholarly e-books in English medium are published in the USA and the UK. The university presses of Cambridge, Oxford, Columbia, Princeton and MIT and commercial publishers like Routledge, Palgrave Macmillan, Ashgate and Springer are the major publishers and providers of the scholarly e-books. Originality/value This study provides insights into pricing policy of electronic and their print versions of scholarly book titles for libraries. Thus it may be relevant and helpful for library administrators in informed decision making while developing their collections for books.

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E-book Use and Value in the Humanities: Scholars’ Practices and Expectations

Cited by 16 publications

References 10 publications

Information technology and the humanities scholar: Documenting digital research practices

Information technology and the humanities scholar: Documenting digital research practices

Format Shift: Information Behavior and User Experience in the Academic E-book Environment

E-book and print book price and desirability for university libraries: a comparative study

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