Thursday, November 6, 2008

The role of online books in supporting academic researcher productivity

Yet another paper on ebooks. This one is a white paper published by Elsevier.
In 2007 a number of academics from universities and research institutes in countries around the world was interviewed to find out how ebooks impact on the way they work.
They used a range of book types - reference works, handbooks, book series, monographs and textbooks.
Ebooks are seen as important for basic knowledge, well-established work and reference information, and they provide overviews of specific subject areas. The respondents' primary uses were reading up on new subject areas and preparing course materials. The pluses of ebooks are that they are more accessible and this increases productivity, and integration of ebooks with journals (where this is available) provides a broader perspective, especially when starting a new research project.

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