Content area
Full text
1. Introduction
Following the rise to prominence of electronic book (e-book) technology in the late 1990s, e-books have been a popular topic in recent years ([34] Langston, 2003). E-books can effectively support an academic mission by saving time, adding value as a collective online reference, and enabling dynamic and cost-effective collection management ([15] Cox, 2004). An e-book comprises a digital body primarily of text with a defined scope. The term "e-book" is used to describe a text analogous to a book that is digitally displayed on the screen of a computer, a personal digital assistant, or a specifically designed reader; it may comprise text, graphics, video, animation, and/or sound. The e-book is a new platform for accessing digital information that capitalizes on the benefits of electronic reading while providing many of the advantages of paper books (p-books) ([33] Landoni and Hanlon, 2007). E-books have some advantages over printed books, such as settings and particular purposes. On the positive side, two of the most popular reasons for using e-books include their "searchability" and the fact that they are available 24 hours a day.
E-book readers can find specific content more easily and more efficiently than in a p-book ([51] Shelburne, 2009). An e-book, for example, usually has fairly short articles that can be displayed on a few screens, and reading at a computer monitor is acceptable to most users under e-library systems (Dennis et al. , 2008). By enabling individuals to find information and to determine whether a book's content is appropriate without having to make a trip to the library, an e-book's time-saving benefits are clear. In additions, students like the lightness and portability of e-book devices, as well as navigation capability, ease of use, storage capacity, and the use of e-ink for displaying content on the screen ([23] Gibson and Gibb, 2011). Futurist [32] Kelly (2006) anticipated that, in the near future, "all new works will be born digital" (p. 43). A 2009 study by Shelburne at the University of Illinois found that the overall lifetime usage of the Springer e-book collections at the University of Illinois Library as of February 2009 was 124,026 chapter downloads. This includes 3,992 chapter downloads from August 2006 through December 2006, 26,675 for 2007, 82,622 for 2008,...