Levine-Clark, Michael and Christopher C. Brown, “E or P? A Comparative Analysis of Electronic and Print Book Usage,” Electronic Resources & Libraries, Austin, March 19, 2013.

1. E or P? A Comparative Analysis of
Electronic and Print Book Usage
Electronic Resources & Libraries
Austin
March 19, 2013
Michael Levine-Clark
Christopher C. Brown

2. Methodology

3. Duke University Press eBooks
• Added October 2008
• Loaded MARC records December 2008
• Purchase all e/p
• 1,480 e-books
– Frontlist approximately 120 per year
– Backlist
• 2,416 p-books
• Many predate the e-book collection
• 1,150 in both formats

4. The Data
• Gathered circ data
– Through December 2008
– Each subsequent December (2009-2012)
– Cumulative
• Compiled e-book use data
– At end of each year, 2009-2012
– For each year

5. Apples and Oranges
• pBook checkouts
– Undergrad: 3 weeks
– Grad: 10 weeks
– Faculty: 1 year
– Potentially many uses per checkout, and some
when deciding to checkout
• eBook use
– One time in the book is one use

6. About Discovery and Data
• Discovery through catalog records
• Data merger issues:
– Title variations
– ISBN complexities
– Multi-volume issues

7. E and P Typically Pattern Together in
Results
Classic
Catalog
Encore (next-gen)
Catalog

8. Data Difficulties: Title Variations
Catalog Record Vendor Record
Series used with title The Sri Lanka reader : World Readers : Sri
history, culture, Lanka Reader : History,
politics / John Clifford Culture, Politics
Holt, ed.
Series used with title Julia Child's The French Spin Offs : Julia Child's
chef / Dana Polan. The French Chef
Word renderings Present tense : rock & Present Tense : Rock
roll and culture and Roll and Culture
Spaces Percussion : drumming, Percussion: Drumming,
beating, striking Beating, Striking
Vendors and catalogers don’t necessarily agree on title formation.
This makes matching on title impossible.

9. More Title Variations
Catalog Record Vendor Record
Gremlin characters Affective communities : Affective communities:
(diacritics) anticolonial thought, fin-de-anticolonial thought, Fin-De-
si├ ¿cle radicalism, and the SiFcle radicalism, and the
politics of friendship politics of friendship
Presence/Absence of The life and traditions of the
Life and Traditions of the Red
Subtitles Red man Man : A rediscovered
treasure of Native American
Literature
Title Discrepencies A coincidence of desires : Coincidence of Desire :
anthropology, queer studies, Anthropology, Queer
Indonesia Studies, Indonesia
Translated Titles Desencuentros de la Divergent Modernities :
modernidad en América Culture and Politics in
Latina. English, Divergent Nineteenth-Century Latin
modernities : culture and America
politics in nineteenth-
century Latin America

10. Data Difficulties: Multiple ISBNs

11. Data Difficulties: ISBN 10? ISBN 13?

12. Data Difficulties: ISBN Irregularities
Note the ISBN10 with ISBN 13, the parentheses, and the
multiple ISBNs.

13. Data Solution: Create an ISBN 9
ISBN 9 eliminates the ISBN 13 – 978 prefix
and the final check-digit, creating a useable
match-point, in cases where the electronic
and print versions agree on base ISBN.

14. Data Difficulties: Too Many
Sources
• Usage reports include only titles that are
actually used
– Needed to pull in unused titles from elsewhere
• Different formats

15. Data Methodology using Microsoft Access
• Get annual use stats of e-books from vendor
• Get master list of e-titles from vendor.
• Derive ISBN9 for each list for proper overlay
• Overlay annual use stats onto master list of e-books
• Get circ stats for print books from ILS
• Derive master list of all print titles from ILS
• Derive ISBN 9 for each p title.
• Overlay annual circ stats onto master list of p-books
• Merge circ and use data together

16. Summary of Data Issues
Vendor’s idea of title
Cataloger’s idea of title ISBN Differences
Vendor records may
Catalog records contain Title Differences: contain ISBN 10 or
multiple ISBNs, 10 or “and” vs “&”, etc. ISBN 13
13 digit
Print Books
Print Books E-Books
E-Books
Circulation stats purged Can we compare What does an e-usage
after a time a print circ with an mean?
What does a e-use?
“circulation” mean?

17. Data Conclusions
• Microsoft Access for overlays; Microsoft Excel
for analysis
• Overlay on title is nearly impossible
• Better standards are needed – a single ISBN,
please!
• Deriving an “ISBN9” was the only way to get
anywhere, but even this was far from perfect

18. Usage

19. eBooks
• User Sessions
– 588 titles used (39.7%)
– 5,149 sessions
• 8.8 per title used
• 3.5 per title in the
collection
– 892 titles not used
• Pages Viewed
– Total pages: 35,236
– Average (for books
used): 59.9
– Highest: 2,861

20. eBooks
• Pages Printed
– 68 titles
– Total pages: 3,244
– Average: 47.7 pages
– Highest: 380
• Pages Copied
– 54 titles
– Total pages: 640
– Average: 11.9 pages
– Highest: 64

21. pBooks
• 1,528 titles used (63.2%)
• 903 titles used since Dec
2008 (37.4%)
• 4,611 checkouts (2,930
before Dec 2008)
– 3.0 per title used
– 1.9 per title
– 1.1 per title (post 2008
use)
– 0.7 per title (post 2008)

22. Most Used eBooks, User Sessions
• Women and Gender Equity in Development
Theory and Practice (2006)
– 1,821 user sessions (1,706 in 2012)
– 2,861 pages viewed (2,765 in 2012)
– 380 pages printed (all in 2012)
– 8 checkouts (6 since 2008)
• Date Which Will Live (2003)
– 399 User Sessions (all in 2011-2012)
– 494 pages viewed
– 93 pages printed
– 3 checkouts (1 each in 2009, 2011, 2012)

23. Most Used pBooks
• The Argumentative Turn in Policy Analysis and
Planning (1993)
– 37 checkouts (36 before Dec 2008)
– 2 user sessions, 0 pages printed
• Displacing Whiteness: Essays In Social and
Cultural Criticism (1997)
– 24 checkouts (22 before Dec 2008)
– 3 user sessions, 0 pages printed

24. Most Used pBooks Since 2008
• Kurosawa: Film Studies and Japanese Cinema
(2000)
– 19 checkouts (12 since 2008)
– No eBook
• The Cinema of Naruse Mikio (2008)
– 11 checkouts (all since 2008)
– 6 user sessions, 45 pages viewed
• Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things
(2010)
– 11 checkouts (all since 2010)
– 7 user sessions, 205 pages viewed

25. Dual Format Availability: A
Preference for Print
• 1,150 titles available in both formats
• Print Use
– 619 titles checked out since Dec 2008 (53.8%)
– 825 titles checked out (including before Dec 2008)
(71.7%)
• Electronic Use
– 451 titles with user sessions (39.2%)

26. Dual Format Use
• 394 titles used in both formats
– 4,221 user sessions (2,400 without the 1,821 use
title)
• 10.7 per title used (6.1)
– 1,524 p-book checkouts (801 before Dec 2008)
• 3.9 per title used (1.8 for uses since 2008)
– 54 titles with pages printed (out of 68)
• 7.4 pages per title used
– 68.4 pages viewed on average

27. Dual Format Use post-2008
• 332 titles used in both formats
– 3981 user sessions (2,160 without the 1,821 use
title)
• 12.3 per title used (6.7)
– 712 p-book checkouts
• 2.2 per title used
– 48 titles with pages printed (out of 68)
• 8.3 pages per title used
– 72.0 pages viewed on average

28. P Used, E Not
• 431 titles
– 1,004 checkouts
• 2.3 per title used
– 297 titles with
checkouts since 2008
• 479 checkouts
– 1.6 per title used

29. E Used, P Not
• 57 titles
• 246 user sessions
– 4.3 per title
• 906 pages viewed
– 15.9 per title
• 3 titles with pages
printed

30. eBook Use

31. eBook Use

32. Print Use

33. How Closely Are P/E Usage
Linked?

34. Increased Checkouts, 2008-2012
• For titles available at the start of the project
(Dec 2008), how many more checkouts were
there by Dec 2012?
• Was that increase linked in any way to e-
usage?
• Was it linked in any way to type of e-usage?

35. Increased Checkouts 2008-2012
• 686 titles with increased checkouts
– Measuring titles available prior to Dec 2008
• 408 available in both formats
• 235 also had e-use
– 15.5 user sessions per title
– 81.2 pages viewed per title

36. Observations
• Use of E may lead to use of P
• Use of P doesn’t seem to lead to use of E
• If both formats are used,
– they are both used at a higher rate than average
– They have greater meaningful use as e-books
• Pages viewed
• User sessions

37. Thoughts
• If dual format usage is higher by all measures,
does this mean that people’s preference is for
good content, not format?
BUT
• When both formats are available, print is
more likely to be used (53.8% vs 39.2%).
– Does e-discovery drive p-use?

38. Does Subject Impact Use?

39. LC Class Example: B – Philosophy,
Psychology, Religion
• 148 titles in print (6.1% • 1.9 checkouts per title
of all Duke print titles) used (all print) (+0.8)
– 64 titles checked out • 2.3 checkouts per title
since 2008 (7.1%) (both formats used)
• 102 e-books (6.9%) (+0.5)
– 49 e-books used (8.3%) • 5.1 user sessions per title
• 79 titles available in (both formats used) (-1.0)
both formats (6.9%)
– 48 titles checked out
(7.8%)
– 40 e-books used (8.9%)

40. LC Class – Best & Worst in Print
(Difference Between % of Collection
and % of Checkouts – post 2008)
• P – Lang & Lit (n=579): • M – Music (63): +2.4%
-4.6% • F – Hist of Americas
• H – Soc Sci (515): -1.1% (183): +1.5%
• J – Poli Sci (178): -0.8% • G – Geog, Anth, Rec
• Q – Science (38): -0.7% (82): +1.3%
• T – Technology (44): • E – Hist of Americas
-0.5% (140): +1.2%
• B – Phil, Psych, Rel
(148): +1.0%

41. LC Class – Best & Worst eBooks
(Difference Between % of Collection
and % of Titles with User Session)
• P – Lang & Lit (n=285): • B – Phil, Psych, Rel
-3.3% (102): +1.4%
• Q – Science (23): -0.5% • F – Hist of Americas
• M – Music (64): -0.4% (158): +0.9%
• T – Technology (22): • N – Art (42): +0.7%
-0.3% • D – History (107): +0.4%
• K – Law (40): -0.2% • E – Hist of Americas
(98): +0.4%

42. LC Class – Best & Worst E &P
(Difference Between % of Collection
and % of Titles Used – Both Available)
• P – Lang & Lit (n=231): • E – Hist of Americas
-3.9% P, -3.9% E (81): +1.0% P, +0.9% E
• Q – Science (18): -0.6% • B – Phil, Psych, Rel (79):
P, -0.7% E +1.4% P, +2.0% E
• T – Technology (19): • H - Soc Sci (260): +0.4%
-0.5% P, -0.5% E P, 0.0% E
• G – Geog, Anth, Rec • D – History (87): +0.4%
(52): -0.3% P, +2.0% E P, -0.2% E

43. Two Oddities – E&P Available
• J – Poli Sci (54): +1.0% P, -0.5% E
• M – Music (48): +1.3% P, -0.8% E

44. Observations
• Some of the subject and format differences
have to do with publication date
– Lots of old social science material in print
• Some differences are surely local
• The sample size for most LC Classes is too
small to be meaningful

45. Further Questions
• How does discovery play in?
• What might ILL/resource sharing tell us about
demand for P when E is available?

46. Thank You