Two separate studies of e-book usage—one on consumer e-books and another commissioned to study digital textbooks in the classroom—offer some surprises and support certain presumptions about e-book devices and digital reading.
The E-book Reader Survey, a consumer survey conducted in the spring by Knowbetter.com and ebookweb.org, two e-book news and resource Web sites, surveyed 618 individuals online about their e-reading habits. And in a separate effort, Richard F. Bellaver, associate director of the Center for Information and Communication Studies at Ball State University, conducted a "usability" study in a class that was split between students using print textbooks and Gemstar e-book reading devices. The study hoped to find out whether there were any differences in learning using a device or a printed book.
The E-book Reader Survey (www.knowbetter.com) is posted at a variety of Web sites used by e-book readers. The 618 respondents were split evenly between males (50.8%) and females (49.1%). Respondents used PDAs (42.7%), Gemstar e-book readers (31.4%) and desktop computers (22.8%) to read e-books.
Kelly Ford, founder of Knowbetter.com, pointed out that e-books do not appear to be attracting non-technical consumers. Most respondents to this survey (72%) characterized themselves as advanced users of technology, with 26% describing themselves as basically proficient with computers.
According to Ford, respondents were "frustrated" with DRM restrictions, complaining of the inability to loan or resell e-books or even switch them among their own devices. Unsurprisingly, respondents complained of high prices for e-books and lack of title availability in certain formats. Ford was most surprised by the age of respondents—the majority (74%) were between 30 and 59 years old—with only about 14% under the age of 30. Despite notions that tech-savvy teens would be early e-book adopters, Ford noted that there are very few e-books aimed at young adults.
The survey also found that most respondents preferred e-books for leisure reading (93%) rather than for educational or reference reading, and they read between one and three e-books a month. Ford told PW that both Web sites will be conducting additional e-book user surveys.
Ball State Study
The study at Ball State was conducted under a $20-million grant to study digital media in education from the Eli Lilly Foundation. The study used two Gemstar e-book devices, the REB 1200 color device and the REB 1100 black-and-white device. It involved 91 students (40 used texts; 24 used the b&w device; and 27 used the color device), and an Addison-Wesley textbook was converted into digital format for the study.
According to Bellaver, the study found no significant difference in test scores between the students using print and digital texts. Nevertheless, Bellaver said, "There were plenty of student complaints about the usability of e-books." Converting the textbook into the digital format eliminated pictures and graphics, a major complaint of the students, said Bellaver. But students were also dissatisfied with the complexity of the device's user manual; the inability to locate chapters and appendices; and overall slow navigation using the devices. Bellaver noted that the device features the students liked best—word search, book marking and highlighting—were generally the digital equivalents of actions used in print reading.
Bellaver said he will be conducting more e-book studies under the Lilly grant. He plans to work with the Ball State drama school, which will use e-books to study historical and plot information while producing a play; and he said the Ball State athletic department plans to test using e-books to provide easily updated media guides to sportswriters.
