2011 Global Student E-book Survey

The results of the ebrary 2011 Global Student E-book Survey were presented by Dr. Allen McKiel at the 2011 Charleston Conference, and his paper will be included in the 2011 Conference Proceedings, to be published in partnership with the Charleston Conference and Purdue University Press.

From a press release from ebrary:

The results of the 2011 Global Student E-book Survey, which was created and distributed by librarians, is now publicly available along with a paper by Dr. Allen McKiel, Dean of Library Services at Western Oregon University. Anyone may access the new report online or offline on the ebrary platform along with previous e-book surveys sponsored by ebrary at http://site.ebrary.com/lib/surveys.

McKiel’s paper compares the results of the 2011 survey, which garnered over 6,300 student participants worldwide, with a similar survey that ebrary sponsored in 2008. In the 2011 paper, McKiel writes: “Books, whether electronic or print, again provide assurance of validity to the highest percentage of students in this survey as in the 2008 survey. Five of the six top slots were given to books in both surveys. Print was also viewed as trustworthy by higher percentages of students than electronic resources with four of the top six resources in both years. The perceived viability of print is not surprising given the constant refrains of caution about, and personal experience with, the reliability of information on the Internet versus print. Students know that electronic information is transient and easy to produce compared to the product and processes of print publication. The barriers to print publication afford an intuitive impression of higher integrity.”

ebrary’s 2011 Global Student E-book Survey also included a separate social media section that was not available in the 2008 survey, which will be analyzed and freely available shortly. Librarians are encouraged to explore the data from ebrary surveys and share their thoughts and opinions with others. For additional information, please email feedback@ebrary.com.