情報科学技術協会 [Information Science and Technology Association]
Doi
Abstract
The expected role of university libraries is changing from developing collections to increasing digital resources as well as offering more study space to support undergraduate students. Most of us have expected the increase of ebooks to facilitate the transformation and improve user supports. However, the environment of ebook services in recent years seems different from our expectation; students still prefer printed books, ebooks are still very difficult to read, and the ebook budget is decreasing. This paper examines two recent national surveys to clarify challenges to ebook services. This will be followed by a discussion of the efforts to tackle the challenges at the University of Pittsburgh Library. Last but not the least, this paper also offers some suggestions for the Japanese ebook industry