Prosper signale que Springer a lancé, auprès de quelques bibliothèques sélectionnées, un service pilote d'impression d'e-books à la demande, appelé MyCopy. Donc, si j'essaie de comprendre le "business model": d'abord, on nous vend la fin du papier, ensuite on nous vend des ressources électroniques (indispensables, toujours), et puis on nous vend l'imprimante (pardon, le service) pour les remettre sur papier, les e-ressources... A la demande, certes (tout est dans la nuance, comme souvent).

Economics and usage of digital libraries: byting the bullet (Jeffrey K. MacKie-Mason and Wendy Pradt Lougee (éd.), Scholarly Publishing Office of the University of Michigan Library, 2008)

"This monograph is the final product of a journey that began over 12 years ago The University of Michigan already was a pioneer in the development of electronic access to scholarly publications. For example, it was one of a small number of participants in TULIP (The University Licensing Project), an early joint project between Elsevier and university libraries to develop workable systems for electronic distribution and usage. Michigan was also a recipient of one of six large grants in the first round of the NSF Digital Library program, launching he University of Michigan Digital Library (UMDL) project. Towards the end of TULIP, the project leaders from Michigan and Elsevier started meeting with researchers from UMDL to discuss a bold idea: to deploy a full-scale production-quality digital access system to enable usage of content from all of Elsevier's (then about 1200) scholarly journals, and at the same time to conduct a field experiment to answer various questions about the interplay between pricing models and usage."

Un webinar était organisé ce matin par Springer, à propos de l'utilisation de ses e-books, si j'ai bien compris. Lire un compte-rendu sur No Shelf Required.

[ lire aussi ]

Books in a virtual world: The evolution of the e-book and its lexicon (Chris Armstrong, pre-print de l'article publié en sept. 08 dans Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 40/3)

"Over recent years there has been considerable confusion over the use of the term ‘e-book’, and this article examines the variety of definitions used to date while proposing a definitive construct. Beginning by examining the definitions of ‘book’, the paper moves on to consider the essential element of a book – the content, and to examine publishing and structural aspects of e-books, as well as their place in libraries, before arriving at a final definition. The definition and its derivation embrace all of the issues that affect the way in which e-books are understood and used today. In conclusion, the article looks at both the genesis of e-books, and the stage of acceptance and adoption that they have reached, with brief reference to 3rd-generation e-book readers available at the time of writing."

Information Automation Limited (Grande-Bretagne) a publié une bibliographie de ressources consacrées aux e-books en 2008 (en anglais): Writings about e-book publishing, 2008.

"But I Want a Real Book": An Investigation of Undergraduates" Usage and Attitudes toward Electronic Books
(source: Reference & User Services Quarterly, vol. 47, n° 3, 08 / sur abonnement)

During the fall of 2004, the Head of Electronic Resources at the College of Mount St. Joseph's Archbishop Alter Library conducted a survey using a paper-based questionnaire and administered it to several randomly chosen undergraduate courses. The goal of the study was to investigate the college's undergraduates' usage and attitudes toward electronic books. The study grew from the college librarians' informal observations of students' reactions, many times negative, to e-books over a four-year period. Results ran counter to what one might expect of undergraduates belonging to the Millennial or "net" generation. The findings show that students have mixed feelings about using e-books; students will use e-books but prefer using traditional print books. The study gives insight into where electronic and print media are in the current academic realm.

Dans le Guardian (Gde.-Bretagne) de ce dimanche 27 juillet:

- 'It made me feel alienated from the books that I know well'
- Ebooks: The sceptics
- E-readers: A guide
- What we're seeing is the creation of a new art form
- Ebooks: The enthusiasts
- Wood block to ebook

Une enquête sur l'utilisation d'e-books par des académiques a été menée en 2007 aux E.-U., à l'université d'Etat de l'Arizona. Les principaux résultats indiquent que ces derniers, tout en reconnaissant leur utilité intrinsèque, éprouvent globalement des difficultés dans l'utilisation des e-books, que ce soit pour leurs recherches ou pour l'enseignement, et principalement en raison de questions liées:
- au manque de fiabilité de l'accès
- à la faiblesse des fonctionnalités de manipulation
- à l'apprentissage des diverses interfaces

Exploring faculty experiences with e-books: a focus group (Library Hi Tech, vol. 26, n° 2, 2008, pp. 244-254 / déposé sur E-LIS, 15/07/08)
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe how, in the spring of 2007, Arizona State University Libraries held a focus group of selected faculty to discover their perceptions and use of electronic books (e-books) in their research and teaching.
Design/methodology/approach – The services of the Institute of Social Sciences Research were employed to recruit and moderate the focus group. Major themes explored were: use of e-books as textbooks; use of e-books for personal research; comparison between e-books and print; disciplinary differences in perceptions of e-books; and motivators for future use.
Findings – Overall, the focus group revealed that faculty had generally unsatisfactory experiences in using e-books in their research and teaching owing to the unreliability of access, lack of manipulability, and the steep learning curve of the various interfaces. However, most faculty agreed that e-books would be a very viable and useful alternative if these issues were resolved.
Research limitations/implications – The focus group consisted of only six faculty members and hence is not representative of faculty as a whole. A larger survey of a more diverse faculty population would greatly serve to clarify and expand upon the findings.
Practical implications – The implications for academic libraries include providing better outreach and training to faculty about the e-book platforms offered, provide better course support, and advocate to e-book vendors to consider faculty's teaching and research needs in their product development.
Originality/value – This is believed to be the first published study of faculty opinions and use of e-books utilizing focus group methodology and offers detailed information that would be useful for academic libraries and e-book vendors for evidence-based decisions.

ebrary a organisé, avec l'aide d'une centaine de bibliothécaires dans le monde, une enquête sur la perception et l'usage des e-books par les étudiants. Parmi les résultats, on constate que les interrogés n'utilisent pas ou peu les e-books pour deux raisons majeures:
- ils ne savent pas où/comment les trouver
- ils préfèrent la version papier

Voir le document: 2008 Global Student E-book Survey (pdf)

Via The Kept-Up Academic Librarian

Une enquête (pdf) Random House/Zogby (Etats-Unis) indique que plus de 80% des personnes interrogées préfèrent acheter et lire un livre papier (plutôt qu'en ligne ou en version électronique).

Via Social Media