What's the use?: analysing student citations to provide new insights into e-book usage

Authors

Antony Groves

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1629/2048-7754.158

Abstract

This article reports on a small-scale user-focused piece of research carried out at the University of Sussex. In an attempt to better understand the impact of e-books on student outputs, citation analysis was performed on coursework to identify the e-books that had been used. Of the students surveyed, 11.6% cited an e-book in their work and, for this particular group, EBL was found to be the most popular collection. However, cross reference with the Library discovery tool and Google revealed that e-books available from the web were cited more than those from library collections. Interviews uncovered a spectrum of usage, leading to the conclusion that a comprehensive e-book strategy is required that makes students aware of their benefits, equips them with the skills needed for effective use and increases the number of e-books available.

References

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Published

2014-07-07

Issue

Vol. 27 No. 2: July 2014

Section

Articles

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