Use and Users of Electronic Library Resources

As libraries increasingly incorporate digital content into their existing print collections, the question invariably arises as to how this new blending is viewed by both patrons and professionals. In an effort to address that question, the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) analyzed more than 200 recent research studies focusing on the use of electronic library resources and has compiled a report entitled "Use and Users of Electronic Library Resources: An Overview and Analysis of Recent Research Studies" summarizing those findings.

http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub120/pub120.pdf
(August 2003)

Although the methodology used and conclusions drawn in the studies vary widely, there are several consistent themes that reoccur regularly. Both faculty and students like electronic resources, particularly if the sources are perceived as convenient, relevant and time-saving to their natural workflow, but most of these users still print out their e-journals for reading. Electronic resources are especially handy for browsing and for taking advantage of hyperlinks to related material, although subject experts make much more use of the hyperlinks than students.

Different disciplines exhibit different usage patterns and preferences for print or electronic, but print is used for reading assignments in almost every discipline, and is considered important in some disciplines, especially in the humanities. Print is definitely the most popular medium for books, with electronic books still in the embryonic stage of usage. With rising prices in academic publishing, many faculty are allowing their print subscriptions to lapse, relying instead on electronic subscriptions subsidized by the library or on the Internet. Internet-based resources have become the dominant medium used by most college and high schools students, who often believe that they are more expert at searching than their teachers, but their criteria for judging the quality of those sources often differs from that of their teachers.

Posted by Tom on October 02, 2003