SUBSCRIBE
SUBSCRIBE
EXPLORE +
  • About infoDOCKET
  • Academic Libraries on LJ
  • Research on LJ
  • News on LJ
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Libraries
    • Academic Libraries
    • Government Libraries
    • National Libraries
    • Public Libraries
  • Companies (Publishers/Vendors)
    • EBSCO
    • Elsevier
    • Ex Libris
    • Frontiers
    • Gale
    • PLOS
    • Scholastic
  • New Resources
    • Dashboards
    • Data Files
    • Digital Collections
    • Digital Preservation
    • Interactive Tools
    • Maps
    • Other
    • Podcasts
    • Productivity
  • New Research
    • Conference Presentations
    • Journal Articles
    • Lecture
    • New Issue
    • Reports
  • Topics
    • Archives & Special Collections
    • Associations & Organizations
    • Awards
    • Funding
    • Interviews
    • Jobs
    • Management & Leadership
    • News
    • Patrons & Users
    • Preservation
    • Profiles
    • Publishing
    • Roundup
    • Scholarly Communications
      • Open Access

January 14, 2018 by Gary Price

Research Article: “The Secret Lives of Ebooks: A Paratextual Analysis Illuminates a Veil of Usage Statistics”

January 14, 2018 by Gary Price

The following article was recently published online by Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies.  The link below is to an open access version of the article made available by one of the authors.
Title
The Secret Lives of Ebooks: A Paratextual Analysis Illuminates a Veil of Usage Statistics
Authors
Jonathan H. Harwell
Rollins College
Erin Gallagher
Reed College
Source
Rollins Scholarship Online
Faculty Publications 187 (2018)
Published Version: doi.org/10.1177/1354856517751379
Abstract

This study applies the method of paratextual analysis to six electronic books, or ebooks, in an academic library collection at a small liberal arts college. Two books are selected from each of three platforms: ebrary, EBSCO, and SpringerLink. The characteristics of each book are described, including design and readership, as well as 2 years of usage statistics from the specific library, and altmetrics where available. The paratextual study leads to a closer investigation of the usage statistics themselves and concludes that despite industry standards, they are not calculated consistently across vendor platforms and that while these data are invisible to researchers outside of the library, there are also essential elements that librarians mistakenly take at face value when comparing ebook usage from multiple vendors.

Direct to Full Text Article
28 pages; PDF.

Filed under: Academic Libraries, Companies (Publishers/Vendors), Data Files, EBSCO, Libraries, News, Open Access

SHARE:

About Gary Price

Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com. Gary is also the co-founder of infoDJ an innovation research consultancy supporting corporate product and business model teams with just-in-time fact and insight finding.

ADVERTISEMENT

Archives

Job Zone

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Infodocket Posts

Open Book Futures: A New £5.8 Million Project to Deliver a "More Sustainable Future" For Open Access Books...

Here’s the Full Text of an Announcement From Lancaster University: A new project that works to increase access to valuable research is to receive more than £5.8 million [$7.15 Million/USD] ...

Project Muse Journal Publishers Offer Free Access for Low-Income Countries; Towards the Future of Responsible Research Assessment: Announcing DORA’s...

Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA) Call for Working Group Proposals 2023 (via RDA) Envisioning Together: A Report of Session 803 (SAA 2022) (via DLF) NISO’s Draft Content Profile/Linked Document ...

The French Open Science Monitor 2022: 67% Of Publications in Open Access and New Indicators for Research Data...

From the The Ministry of Higher Education and Research, Government of France: The Ministry of Higher Education and Research publishes the results of the French Open Science Monitor for 2022. ...

Conference Paper: "Responding to Digital Misinformation: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Effective Countermeasures"

From a Post on the Programme On Democracy & Technology (DemTech), Oxford Internet Institute (University of Oxford) Website: Several members of our research team will be attending the 2023 International ...

Report: Connecticut Dedicates $1M to Digitize Historical Documents

From Governing:  At a time when many states dispute whether accurate history should be taught in schools, Connecticut Historical Society is celebrating $1 million in federal funding to digitize its ...

arXivLabs Adds Two New Integrations That "Provide Insights Into the Academic 'Influence' of Researchers and Enable Reproducibility Through...

From an arXiv Blog Post: arXivLabs, a framework for enabling the arXiv community to contribute to arXiv, continues to grow. We recently rolled out two new integrations—DagsHub and Influence Flower—to provide our ...

Bard College: Robert Storr Gives 25,000 Volumes, the Core of His Library, and Papers From His Professional Archive to Center...

From Bard College: The Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College (CCS Bard) today announced that acclaimed curator Robert Storr has donated major selections of his library and archive, an intensely ...

Pen America: U.S. Is Experiencing the Biggest Attack on First Amendment Rights ‘In Generations’; Harry Ransom Center Acquires...

ACRL Acquires Threshold Achievement Test for Information Literacy (TATIL) Chat-Based Search and Discovery: Perplexity AI For iOS App Released & AI Search Startup Raises $26 Million To Offer Rival To ...

Report: "Fast-Growing Open-Access Journals Stripped of Coveted Impact Factors"

From a Science Article by Jeffery Brainard: Nearly two dozen journals from two of the fastest growing open-access publishers, including one of the world’s largest journals by volume, will no ...

Statement: American Library Association (ALA) Condemns Ongoing Threats Against Libraries

Here’s the Full Text of an ALA Statement (March 27, 2023): The American Library Association (ALA) condemns—in the strongest terms possible—the violence, threats of violence and other acts of intimidation ...

HathTrust Launching an "In-Depth Process of Exploration, Discovery, and Strategic Visioning, to Begin Our Next 15 Years"

From HathiTrust: The world has changed dramatically in the 15 years since HathiTrust’s creation and even more so in the 5 years since we adopted our 2019-2023 Strategic Directions. Despite the ...

IMLS Names Finalists for 2023 National Medal for Museum and Library Service

From the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS): The Institute of Museum and Library Services is pleased to announce 30 finalists for the 2023 National Medal for Museum and ...

ADVERTISEMENT

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER

Tweets by infoDOCKET

ADVERTISEMENT

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

Primary Sidebar

  • News
  • Reviews+
  • Technology
  • Programs+
  • Design
  • Leadership
  • People
  • COVID-19
  • Advocacy
  • Opinion
  • INFOdocket
  • Job Zone

Reviews+

  • Booklists
  • Prepub Alert
  • Book Pulse
  • Media
  • Readers' Advisory
  • Self-Published Books
  • Review Submissions
  • Review for LJ

Awards

  • Library of the Year
  • Librarian of the Year
  • Movers & Shakers 2022
  • Paralibrarian of the Year
  • Best Small Library
  • Marketer of the Year
  • All Awards Guidelines
  • Community Impact Prize

Resources

  • LJ Index/Star Libraries
  • Research
  • White Papers / Case Studies

Events & PD

  • Online Courses
  • In-Person Events
  • Virtual Events
  • Webcasts
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Media Inquiries
  • Newsletter Sign Up
  • Submit Features/News
  • Data Privacy
  • Terms of Use
  • Terms of Sale
  • FAQs
  • Careers at MSI


© 2023 Library Journal. All rights reserved.


© 2022 Library Journal. All rights reserved.