E-book popularity at UK universities gathers pace

The popularity of e-books among university libraries is growing fast, according to vendors, but universities say there are still problems delaying wide acceptance.

Springer has signed e-book agreements with a number of academic institutions, including the University of Chicago, the University of Manchester and the University of Oslo. It now has 13,000 e-books available on its Springerlink.

“The market hasn’t been delivering huge numbers of core text books that students need by e-book, and that is only just beginning to change,” said Margaret Coutts, university librarian at University of Leeds.

Despite the slow growth in the market, Coutts said e-books are attractive because one copy can be accessed by several readers simultaneously. They are also popular with users. “Students like the fact that they can access them from anywhere, at any time.”

According to Monica Landoni, a Stratchlyde University lecturer who has carried out research into e-books, there are still hurdles to widespread adoption. “E-book providers come with different models, both in terms of the functionality they offer readers and in terms of how the payment works.”

She said that publishers have been reluctant to make their most popular titles available electronically because of fear of piracy and of losing control of big revenue-generating titles. “As a result, the books that are most likely to be available online are those that are out of copyright, which is fine for students of 18th century English literature, but not so good for anyone studying medicine.”

Some e-book providers have been providing a poor service to users, said Landoni, offering systems that are difficult to use. But there are signs of chan ge, said Coutts. “The market is better organised. It’s maturing.”

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