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Monday, July 24, 2017

E-books And Their Place In Academic Libraries



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E-books And Their Place In Academic Libraries. Modern e-books range from copies of print books to much more complex, database-type structures. They differ in the way they have been produced – some are digital reproductions of print resources, some are born-digital resources, and some are simultaneously issued in print and online editions. Although the heart of an e-book is still its content, it is important to distinguish between these types of e-books because they vary in many aspects, in their construction, functionality, price, and even in the type of readers they attract. Digitized books and books issued in both electronic and print formats have less functionality than born-digital e-books.
E-books And Their Place In Academic Libraries

 E-books And Their Place In Academic Libraries

Description:

 They may be full-text searchable, but by their nature they imitate their print counterparts, and they cannot have, for example, embedded audio or video like born-digital editions. Digitizing old material brings additional issues. Typesetting was not standard in early books, and OCR is not easy. Additional work is needed to make them full-text searchable. Some collections, like Early English Books Online, include books as scanned images without any searchable text. Price models too are very different. Authors of books in collections like Eighteenth Century Books Online or Early English Books Online are long dead, and there are no royalties to pay. The cost of these collections is usually a one off capital cost. They are sold with perpetual usage licenses rather than licenses with annual subscriptions. 

The downside of this model is that once publishers have sold these collections to the worldwide academic market, they have little interest in improving the platform or functionality. Born-digital books have living authors who require royalties and are likely to write new editions. Publishers struggle with pricing models in this context, and fear that their markets might be damaged. They are afraid that e-books will be downloaded and shared, and that students won’t buy books if they are freely available in libraries. Digitised collections differ from born-digital collections in the types of readers they attract and in the way they are used. Digitising heritage collections is of inestimable value but the reading public attracted by that type of book are generally small groups of students and researchers engaged in historical  research. Born-digital books, on the other hand, serve all subject areas, are used by all type of readerships, and their usage is much higher.

Modern universities encourage and promote the development of fl exible educational models, the use of new teaching technologies and computer-assisted learning management systems. Flexible, distance and e-learning initiatives involve engaging students in online learning experiences. Together with other online resources, e-books offer excellent support for teaching and learning. Many university libraries around the world have been eager to fi nd ways to incorporate them into the learning and teaching initiatives of their universities. One area that is well recognised as benefi ting from e-books is distance learning. Online education makes higher education more affordable and accessible, and the number of students enrolling for online education programmes is constantly increasing.
 
Students can complete or advance their education while they work. Thanks to e-books, they can eliminate shipping costs, and reduce the number of library visits and associated travel time. E-books have brought a whole new experience to monograph reading with the possibility of attaching video and sound fi les to the text. Multimedia capabilities have not been explored and used to their full potential as yet, but examples of their successful use are increasing. One example is the net Library audio fi le that pronounces words. This feature is popular in many electronic dictionaries. Multimedia can also be successfully used in education, especially in distance education when complex ideas need to be explained to students who are  not present.
E-books And Their Place In Academic Libraries

E-books help learning outcomes in distance education match or surpass those in traditional classrooms. Historical researchers benefit from being able to access digitised copies of old and rare books from their desktops. Collections such as Early English Books Online and Eighteenth Century Collections Online enable academics and students to access books which they would have had to travel the world to view in the past. Universities are keen to facilitate digital access to scholarly works. They are digitising their own collections of theses and making them freely available on the Internet. Having theses in electronic format enhances their visibility, and encourages more use of them for further research. E-books expand levels of library service too.

Conclusion: 

The search capabilities they offer are extremely important for the work of library reference staff. The integration of full-text searching with other search capabilities allows librarians to search collections more comprehensively and mine considerably more information than ever before. E-books have become an important part of the learning environment in tertiary institutions. Their importance continues to grow, and the number of academic libraries supporting digital collections grows with it.

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