• Citer

Use of eBooks: Experiment with eReaders and Netbooks

par Algoet, Christophe ;Lerinckx, Dominique ;Vandooren, Françoise
Référence 5th UNICA Scholarly Communication Seminar: Find it, Get it, Ise it, Store it. (7-9 November 2010: Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal)
Publication Non publié, 2010-11-08

Poster de conférence

• Accès en ligne
• Détails
• Contenu
• Statistiques

Résumé :

This poster presents an experiment led at ULB whose objectives were to establish the advantages and disadvantages of eReaders and Netbooks as reading devices for eBooks, and to study the behaviour of students and teachers with these new devices. Context: The ULB Library is continuously increasing its collection of eBooks (~14 000 titles) and is therefore wondering how students and teachers are using them compared to printed books, and which reading devices they are using. Last year, an experiment was launched by the Library of Science and Technologies, in collaboration with the Centre for Teaching Technologies in order to investigate these issues. The experiment was led with professors of practical work in chemistry for BA3 students. The teachers selected the ebooks that would be used by the students for their practical work. The library bought the ebooks and lent eReaders and Notebooks to the participating students and teachers, with a survey questionnaire to be filled in before and after the experiment. The library had to face the publishers’ reluctance to collaborate in this experiment for copyright reasons; there were problems of file format, protection, type of usage allowed, etc. Finally, the publisher De Boeck (important Belgian publisher) was interested to contribute to the experiment. Results: The poster presents the results of the students’ survey, i.e.: the types of information resources they use and their reading strategies; the advantages and disadvantages of the 3 types of reading support (print, eReader, Netbook) in order: to have a quick overview of the content, to set the context, to transport the books, to handle several books simultaneously, to underline text and share comments, to search the text, to locate a book, as well as regarding the accessibility of the books and their long term availability. The conclusions highlight that: • ebooks are complementary to printed books; • access through ebook platforms and e-reading devices still need to be improved; • ebooks and e-reading devices provide new opportunities for pedagogical support.