The 77-page study presents data from a survey of 96 North American academic library directors, deans and university librarians about their plans for use of eBooks. The study gives detailed data on current and planned expenditures, as well as plans for spending on particular aggregators and publishers, The study also provides data and insight into the number of libraries with consortia agreements for eBook purchases, their view of purchases of eBooks directly from publishers rather than through aggregators, and the extent to which they feel eBooks will replace or substitute for print book spending in the future. In addition, survey participants discuss how they view the capabilities of their library patrons in finding and accessing the library eBook collection, and the impediments that they feel discourage the growth of their eBook collections. The study helps its readers to pinpoint the types of libraries eager to expand their eBook collections, maintain them, or contract them. The study presents data for many specific vendors.
Data in the report, including spending data, is broken out by many variables, including college type, enrollment and level of tuition, among other variables. Data is also broken out by some personal characteristic of the survey respondents, such as work title and age. The majority of survey respondents were library directors, and the remained, largely deans or university librarians. Just a few of the report’s many findings are that:
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Mean eBook annual spending for the libraries in the sample was $72,024.
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Junior college libraries had much higher anticipated growth rates in spending on eBooks than did other types of college libraries
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Smaller institutions were much more likely than larger ones to be satisfied or very satisfied with the pricing regimes offered by the main eBook aggregators.
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3.12% of respondents indicated they would spend more or much more on eBooks from Overdrive over the next year.