The Repository @ St. Cloud State

Open Access Knowledge and Scholarship

 

Publication Title

The Reference Librarian

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-2012

Abstract

Individual ownership of handheld e-readers is increasing exponentially. Limited budgets, accessibility issues, and the failure of many e-readers to meet academic needs prevent academic libraries from adopting them at faster rates. Librarians spend a considerable amount of time gathering information about e-readers prior to making an investment. This article provides a history of e-reader availability and selection in the United States, information on the challenges that academic librarians face in e-reader selection, and research results of various studies on e-book/e-reader use by students. The article reflects on the e-reader evaluation and decision-making process and makes recommendations for investment and training.

Comments

NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in The Reference Librarian. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published as:

Rachel Wexelbaum & Plamen Miltenoff (2012): Challenges to E-Reader Adoption in Academic Libraries, The Reference Librarian, 53:3, 270-283.

doi:10.1080/02763877.2012.678747

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.