Second JISC Observatory e-book survey 2009 results

Thank you for participating in the worlds largest survey on e-books!

The Library recently promoted a survey on e-books that many of you took part in. This survey was run at universities across the UK and over 23,000 staff and students participated. This was the second survey run as part of the JISC national e-books observatory project http://www.jiscebooksproject.org/ , the first was in January 2008. The surveys were exploring current awareness, perceptions and attitudes towards e-books and looking to see if these changed between 2008 and 2009.

Together, these surveys received over 48,000 responses - the world's biggest e-book survey ever undertaken! We would like to thank you for participating in the surveys. A student at Royal Holloway University of London won the £200 Amazon voucher prize.

Some headline findings from the surveys:

• Use of e-books for study increased for students from 61.4% in 2008 to 64.4% in 2009 but the highest increase was use by staff, which increased from 58.9% to 64.9%.
• Surprisingly, over 63% of respondents said that they read the content of e-books from a screen with only around 6% printing pages out, however, the average time spent reading was only between 11 and 20 minutes.
• Over 54% of respondents said that they dip in and out of e-book chapters with only around 8% reading a whole chapter.
• Encouragingly, the percentage of teaching staff recommending e-books to students and placing direct links to them via the virtual learning environment or online reading lists increased between 2008 and 2009.
• There was no discernable difference between the use of e-books by age groups, although it does appear that men prefer e-books to women.
• Most staff and students get access to their e-books via the university library and dependency on this access had increased by 2009.
• Satisfaction with the availability of print textbooks through the library increased from 2008 to 2009 and this may be due to the availability of more e-books taking the pressure of the print copies.
• The results of the surveys will be used to develop the e-books market to help make sure that staff and students can get access to the books they need either in print or electronic format.

For further information on e-books in the Library please see Library e-books page http://www.library.qmul.ac.uk/e-resources/ebooks.htm


For further information on the JISC national e-books observatory project please see www.jiscebooksproject.org

Hive extension now open

The extension to the Hive is now open. The new space is located in the link bridge & an area of the 1st floor of the Physics building, immediately adjacent to the existing Hive (Level One) study area.

The new area provides around 100 seats, with 25 QM Teaching Service workstations. It has wireless access throughout and also contains a bookable group study room.

The area is open from 8.00 to 20.00 each day (including weekends), with staff available between 11.30 & 15.30, Monday to Friday.

You can access the Hive extension via the external metal staircase to Level One or via the entrance to the Physics building next to the Chaplaincy (Hive entrance is on the 1st floor). Access with QM ID card only.

Online acccess to TheScientificWorldJOURNAL

QMUL now has online access to TheScientificWorldJOURNAL (TSWJ), a multidisciplinary publication which covers subjects ranging from biomedicine to the environment, including health and social sciences. This title must be accessed off-campus via our A-Z list of e-journals in order for users to be routed via our proxy server, which required users to login with their QMUL Teaching Services /Athens username and password.

Online access to Transplant Library via Ovid

QMUL now has online access to the Transplant Library database via Ovid. This evidence-based resource for organ transplantation is produced by the Centre for Evidence in Transplantation, and includes nearly 6,500 references to all reports (full articles and conference proceedings) of randomized control trials (RCT) in organ transplantation published since 1970, and is updated every two weeks. Transplant Library is accessible and searchable via MetaLib, the Library's e-resource gateway. Users are required to login using their QMUL Athens username and password when accessing these resources off-campus. This resource is funded nationally by the Department of Health for specialist centres and medical schools associated with those hospitals.

Online access to American Psychological Association (APA) databases via Ovid

QMUL now has online access, via Ovid, to the five subject-databases produced by the American Psychological Association (APA). This includes full-text content from journal titles included in the PsycARTICLES database (accessible via the Library's SFX service) and full-text content from books included in the PsycBOOKS database. All APA databases are accessible via MetaLib, the Library's e-resource gateway. Users are required to login using their QMUL Athens username and password when accessing these resources off-campus.

MetaLib: Psychology subject search

A new psychology subject search facility, featuring the option to search individual or groups of listed resources, is now available via the MetaLib gateway to electronic resources. Users should login to MetaLib using their Teaching Services account credentials in order to gain full benefit form the system.

Online access to British Psychological Society e-journal titles

QMUL now has online access to the complete package of 12 British Psychological Society e-journal titles via IngentaConnect. All titles are listed in the Library's A-Z list of e-journal titles. Users are required to login using their QMUL Athens username and password when accessing these titles off-campus.