ACQNET v7n019 (May 4, 1997) URL = http://www.infomotions.com/serials/acqnet/acqnet-v7n019.txt ISSN: 1057-5308 *************** ACQNET, Vol. 7, No. 19, May 4, 1997 ======================================== (1) FROM: W. Perrin SUBJECT: RESULTS - Survey of Attitudes to Electronic Books (207 lines) (1)---------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 22 Apr 1997 12:51:42 +0000 From: Wayne Perrin (MacMillan) Subject: RESULTS - Survey of Attitudes to Electronic Books Dear Colleagues, Last month I circulated a survey to the listserve on the future impact of electronic delivery on the books business and in particular on the humanities and social science monographs business. The survey was sent to a number of related listserves, and to date 104 replies have been received. The results are summarised below with some additional comments from respondents and from myself. I am happy to share a complete listing of the survey results with anyone (except, sorry, direct competitors!). Just email me with an email contact or fax number and I will send it through. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everybody who took the time to complete the questionnaire. If anyone has any further comments or points they would like to make to me directly then please contact me directly via w.perrin@macmillan.co.uk or telephone + 44 171 881 8067 Yours sincerely Wayne Perrin Electronic Publisher Macmillan Publishers Tel + 44 171 881 8067 Fax + 44 171 881 8004 Email w.perrin@macmillan.co.uk SUMMARY OF RESULTS - SURVEY OF ATTITUDES TO ELECTRONIC BOOKS YOUR LIBRARY NOW Library Usage Libraries continue to be heavily used with the majority of respondents reporting increased student usage, although there was a wider variation in the increase in faculty usage. Demand for Desktop Delivery There was a general agreement that demand was there with a greater number reporting that faculty members were more likely to be asking for this service at present. At this stage, however, I am not sure whether this is driven by a particular type of academic (demographically or by subject area) - an area for further research! Student demand was relatively low although this may reflect the fact that fewer universities possess the infrastructure to deliver to students' desktops and fewer students have the hardware to do so. Library Expenditures The majority of libraries reported declining budgets . This backs up all the statistical evidence and of course our own Macmillan publishing evidence of declining sales At the same time there was a general feeling that monographs did represent good value for money in relation to journals. Unfortunately, this hasn't helped us to stop the decline in sales - which probably reflects the relative perceived importance of journals to monographs and the preference to continue a run of a journal wherever possible. Monograph Purchasing There was a general consensus that the importance was in the following order (a) librarian (49.2% agreeing) (b) academic (47.1% agreeing) (c) approval plan (25.7% agreeing) What was clear, however, that the decision is viewed largely as a co-operation between the librarian and the faculty member (where their advice is forthcoming!). The approval plan may serve for many as a "safety net." The Electronic Perspective Now There was no clear trend on the way electronic expenditures were accounted for, with similar numbers of respondents stating that they had or had not established separate budgets. The primary driving force for the move to electronic delivery was improved access in particular for students but also faculty members. Cost savings were not generally expected, with many respondents pointing to the pricing strategies of the publishers as the primary reason! SECTION B - YOUR LIBRARY IN FIVE YEARS TIME Trends in Academic Courses The trend towards proliferation of courses was predicted to continue with the majority of respondents replying that they expected growth in undergraduate numbers in particular. Future Print Acquisitions Budgets General budgets were predicted to decline in real terms. Budgets for monographs were predicted to decline by a higher percentage of respondents, suggesting that monographs budgets will continue to be squeezed even more by rising serials costs and increased electronic expenditure. Electronic Expenditure in the Future Clearly many of the respondents are still in the process of establishing their IT infrastructures and this expenditure was predicted to continue to increase. Comments also pointed out the ongoing costs of IT maintenance, reflecting the fact that IT investment is never a one-off cost but continues to require investment in support and in changing technologies. The majority of respondents felt that electronic expenditure would be the greatest area of growth although, respondents were highly split on whether their library would be spending more on books than electronic products. This may reflect the relatively low starting point of electronic expenditure and therefore the fact that electronic expenditure still has substantial `catching up' before it reaches print expenditure levels. Other Library Trends Sharing of resources was predicted to be increasingly important, perhaps reflecting the growth of the "access not ownership" culture and the pressure to find new ways of making purchases in a period of continued decline in budget size. Similarly the growth of the consortium market is clearly a trend which the publishers are going to have to address. Electronic Access The vast majority of respondents predicted that they would be delivering material to desktops in five years' time. In fact many pointed out that they already were, so I should probably have included this question in the first section for sake of comparison. As far as the relative importance of electronic versus print was concerned responses were very split, suggesting that the new information delivery strategies will contain a variety of media with each medium delivering the information most suited to it. However, a larger proportion of respondents stated that electronic delivery would be the most important medium for students than did for faculty members, which may reflect a demographic change with younger students more ready to accept electronic delivery than older faculty members. The WWW was almost without exception viewed as being more important. In retrospect, however, this may only reflect the growing importance of the WWW as a commercial information delivery medium generally. As for CD-Rom responses were again widely spread. There was some interest in the impact of DVD technology as the "new CD-Rom" and also concern about the hardware (i.e. towers) and software proliferation implications in a context of growing pressure for standard access software. The Role of the Librarian in the Future There was again almost complete agreement that librarians would become increasingly pro-active both in information delivery and teaching information access (with again many pointing out that they already were very pro-active - please accept my apologies if I suggested that I did not think that already - I have been a librarian in the past so I should know better) There was some dissatisfaction with publishers who are migrating products to the WWW/CD-Rom but failing to alert the end-users to this change but instead relying on the librarians to educate the end-users SUMMARY There is clearly a great deal of uncertainty about *exactly* how the introduction of electronic access will effect both publishers and librarians roles. Some trends are coming through but what is clear is that change will take some time as all parties adjust to the new medium and its possibilities. The WWW itself has seen a rapid change from what were often rather limited applications of electronic technology by publishers and (to a lesser degree I believe, libraries and universities) but the distributive nature of the WWW is only going to hasten those changes. COPYRIGHT STATEMENT - IMPORTANT c Copyright 1997 Wayne Perrin. All rights reserved. This report may not circulated or reproduced in any form whether print or electronic, except for personal use, without prior permission of the author. If you wish to make use of the contents of this report then please contact the author w.perrin@macmillan.co.uk or 100617.772@compuserve.com directly. Permission will not be unreasonably withheld. ****** END OF FILE ****** ACQNET, Vol. 7, No. 19 ****** END OF FILE ******