Comparing Digital Apples and Oranges: A Comparative Analysis of e-Books Across Multiple Platforms

This session reported the findings of a comparative analysis of how e-books are represented across multiple platforms. In this session, the presenters shared the results of a study that examined how a sample of academic e-books are represented across different platforms. Topics of analysis included: the inclusion of various metadata, the visual presentation of e-book content, and variations in search results. This presentation also focused on the similarities and differences between e-book representation and what impact these various representations might have on users of academic e-books.     

“And Other Duties as Assigned”: Expanding the Boundaries of the E- resource Lifecycle to Get Things Done

This presentation focused on how elements of the electronic resource lifecycle, such as those described in the NASIG Core Competencies for Electronic Resource Librarians and the Techniques for Electronic Resource Management, apply to the management of physical library projects, including the weeding and shifting of physical collections, a digitization project, as well as other “duties as assigned” that are part of the average librarian’s workload at a small library. Additionally, this presentation touched on issues related to managing print and electronic collections in law libraries.     

The impact of physical book displays on business e-book use

This study examined the effectiveness of a physical display for increasing use of business e-books. The authors created three topical displays and compared the average use of the display titles to the average use of titles in the general collection. The overall rate of use for display e-books (12.3%) was lower than the average rate of use for nondisplay e-books (14.4%), suggesting that displays are not effective tools for increasing business e-book use. However, one display had a significantly higher average rate of e-book use (26.6%), suggesting that factors other than visibility may affect e-book use.