OCLC library holdings: assessing availability of academic books in libraries in print and electronic compared to citations and altmetrics

Although library holding data is constructed upon work format of books, it is less known how much print and electronic books in libraries contribute to the library holding counts. In response, this research is an attempt to explore the distribution of library holding data across work formats and investigate the availability of library print holdings and library electronic holdings for books as constituents of the library holding metric across fields and over time and compared with other book metrics. ISBNs, titles and author names of 119,794 Scopus-indexed book titles across 26 fields were examined for fourteen variables including OCLC Library Holdings, Scopus Citations, Google Books Citations, Goodreads engagements, and Altmetric indicators. There are three major findings: (a) library holdings are a more comprehensively available metric for books (over 97%) than any other metric and could be useful after short time after first edition publication, followed by Google Books, Goodreads and Scopus, respectively; (b) on average electronic holdings are seven times (median three times) more numerous than print holdings and their ratio is growing considerably for more recent books; (c) there is consistent downward trend in average print book holdings, suggesting that library print holding data are cumulative in nature and statistically comparable to formal citations; however, acquisition of electronic books in libraries is inconsistent in distribution plot as well as over time. In sum, the differences between print and electronic holding data are broad making them distinct metrics, suggesting that further research is needed for understanding their implications for book impact assessment.

Kindergarteners building a library of their own

This study investigates how children can develop information literacy (IL) skills even before they learn how to read and write. In the project we used a combination of participatory observation and action research-inspired trialling of digital tools. Kindergarteners were given iPads and access to the app Book Creator to create their own digital stories. The electronic books were gathered and made available to the other children in the class, making a custom local digital library for the kindergarten. This article suggests a new way of considering IL as an emergent literacy, or even perhaps emergent information literacy.

Formation of school student’s vocabulary skills through innovative technologies

The aim of this research is to determine the attitudes of elementary school 4th graders regarding electronic books developed through innovative technologies in the development of vocabulary. Qualitative research methods were used in accordance with the purpose of the research. The data of the research were collected by the semi-structured interview form developed by the researcher. The study involved 20 elementary school 4th graders studying in Almaty, Kazakhstan in the 2019-2020 academic year. As a result of the research, it was concluded that students have a moderate tendency to read electronic books and have a tendency to prefer electronic books as much as printed books. In addition, students found electronic books to be easily accessible, easy to learn and advantageous with their ability to be easy to learn, while they found themselves disadvantaged in terms of easy concentration, eye strain and technology addiction. Based on the results of the research, it is recommended to improve electronic books through innovative technologies and to carry out studies on increasing the use of electronic books by students. Keywords: Electronic book, innovative technologies, student feedback, technology-based learning

Celebrating Medical Librarians During Canadian Library Month

October is Canadian Library Month and an opportunity to acknowledge the work done by medical librarians in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Librarians serving both the research community and the public were quick to adapt to the restrictions imposed by COVID-19. They provided us with access to electronic books, journals, and article databases and helped us via live chats. Curating information about COVID-19 has involved partnerships between CADTH, Canadian research libraries, and overseas organizations.

Ikalbar App: Build a Society Reading Culture of West Kalimantan During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Background of the study: West Kalimantan was in 31st position with a score of 28.36 for the Provincial Reading Literacy Activity (Alibaca) index. It’s means that peaople’s reading interest is low. Purpose: To improve the reading culture in West Kalimantan, there were digital library application called iKalbar. Method: The data were was primary data sources taken from 1,224 respondents as the population and 93 respondents as the sample. It used a quota sampling technique. The data collection technique used descriptive analysis with SPSS 25. Findings: The result on the accessibility dimension showed that te majority of respondents scored iKalbar as the comfortable and easy application for searching the books that they needed when their mobility was limited during the lockdown period. Meanwhile, on the reusability dimension, the majority of respondents scored it as the efficient and effective application, especially during the pandemic to look for the resources needed. It can be seen from the three dimensions of assessment of the reading culture of the people of West Kalimantan that the majority of respondents considered iKalbar application providing user friendly, especially in the features which was compatible for all the devices. Furthermore, the additional duration and number of books to be borrowed provided by the application resulted the improvement in accessing and reading electronic books in iKalbar application. Conclusions: As people’s access to iKalbar increases, people will get used to the habit of accessing and reading electronic books. The habit that was started due to the momentum of the pandemic has encourage the growth of a reading culture among the community, although it has not shown a significant reading culture among the people of West Kalimantan.

Printed Versus Electronic Books: Uses and Preference of Mass Media Students in Lahore

This study is an exertion to determine the preference of university students regarding the usage of electronic books. Postulates of displacement theory were applied to find out the reasons behind students’ adoption of online mode of reading and its effects on learning outcome. The study has examined that if the printed books will be totally replaced by the electronic version or not. A sample of 150 university students studying in the Mass Communication department was selected. Survey methodology was employed to find answers to the research questions. The findings of the study revealed that students preferred using electronic books to printed books. The e-books are considered cost-friendly, easy to access and portable. With the help of findings, it was concluded that e-books had become part and parcel of the life of students, but at the same time, there would be a preference for reading printed books.

Reading Platforms

Reflecting on the history and future of the book, the chapter imagines several possible alternatives to electronic texts as we know them today. The terms “platform” and “format” guide a speculative exploration through an archive of extant literary technologies—micrographic prints, Computexts, HyperCards, and ePUBs—and consideration of these distant materialities and their associated practices, interfaces, and affordances. The way in which a book’s spine or a reading chair realign the positions of the back, eye, and hand suggests another type of structuring when reading electronically, within environments made of polymer, rare metals, and liquid crystal. How does one mold the human senses to fit such alien media? The history of electronic books ultimately attests to the process of trans-mediation, contested at the boundary of hardware—paper or silicon—and software—body and code.

A Model for Creating Interactive eBooks for eLearning

In recent decades, electronic books have revolutionized the publishing world. In this sense, an area of application is education, where electronic books can be used as educational resources to implement learning strategies about content and in eLearning environments. For this, it is necessary to introduce interactive elements in the electronic books that turn the reader into an active actor in the reading process. However, ebooks have a limitation regarding their creation process. In this sense, the tools can be user-oriented or programmer-oriented. The former are intuitive to use and have user-friendly interfaces, but they offer a reduced number of functionalities to add to books. The second are aimed at programmers, allowing for the implementation of any functionality, but limiting the number of content creators who can use them. The main motivation of this work is to propose an intermediate solution that offers a wide number of functionalities while not requiring deep programming knowledge to use them. In this sense, the solution of this article is novel since it proposes the use of extensible markup language (XML) documents to specify the structure of the electronic book in such a way that its processing will lead to the electronic book.