Ebooks & libraries Essay

Ebooks are now becoming more popular in libraries as confirmed by two recent conferences: the Charleston Conference and London Online. This is because library users find it more convenient to use ebooks as compared to printed sources. John Barnes of Cengage announce to the Charleston audience that their users prefer electronic though they still sell more print than electronic reference. In line with this, he believed that libraries have to â€Å"move faster away from print reference† so as to meet the growing demand for ebooks. He also added that the cost per use of the print collection was 5 times greater than the electronic collection. The demand for e-reference books, including dictionaries, almanacs, encyclopedias, and handbooks, continued to rise since it had been included in library systems. In view of this, the presenters showed some issues that were to be addressed, particularly monitoring the usage of scholarly monographs. Peter Shephard of Project COUNTER said that the COUNTER to be installed in many libraries will be of great help in usage reporting. Currently, there are eight libraries that use the system. Ebooks experienced high use despite little promotion. Compared to printed references, ebooks can be more profitable since it can be sold directly to students and libraries. For now, ebook usage are undergoing intensive studies as to how it will work. However, since there are many different types of ebooks, researchers are having a hard time identifying usage patterns. Nevertheless, ebooks are available in libraries for use in research, reference, and more. LIST OF REFERENCES Tenopir, C. (2008). Ebooks Arrive. Library Journal, 133(2):25, January 2