This report looks at which students have received training in use of the library eBook collection, how much they use it, and what they think of their training and the collection itself. The study also looks at the impact of the pandemic on college student use of the academic library eBook collection. It helps its readers to answer questions such as: who is using eBooks? What has received or not received training in how to use the library eBook collection? What do students think of the collection and the training that they have received in its use? How has the pandemic impacted their use of the library eBook collection?
Just a few of the report’s many findings are that:
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Students raised in the US West are much likelier than those raised in other parts of the USA or abroad to be frequent users of the library eBook collection.
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Students from private colleges were almost twice as likely as those from public colleges to be frequent users of the library eBook collection.
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Students of Philosophy, History, English, Classics, and Languages more frequently found the book collection very easy or relatively easy to access and use, compared with students from other disciplines.
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Only approximately 26% of students with a full time job have received any form of training in how to use the college eBook collection.
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Students majoring in journalism were the least likely to find the eBook collection useful to them.
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Broken out by race or ethnicity, students of Asian ancestry were more likely than those form other backgrounds to have become more familiar with their library’s eBook collection over the course of the pandemic.
Data in the report is broken out by more than 20 personal and institutional variables, so, for example, readers can get specific data on eBook use for first year students vs. juniors or seniors, or for students in level 1 research universities vs. doctoral institutions, or for male vs. female or vs. transgender students, or for business/economics majors vs fine arts majors, etc., etc.
Breakouts include age, year of school standing, major or intended major, religion, gender, sexual orientation, income level, SAT/ACT scores, college grades, regional origins, race/ethnicity, level of school tuition, size of school of institution attended and many other variables. This is a critical resource for policy makers in academic libraries as well as a unique data source for social scientists and other studying higher education.