E-books in academic studies

The study discusses e-books and how they can be utilized in academic studies. This was examined through students’ perceptions concerning e-books, their advantages and disadvantages compared to printed materials, ways of using them and what types of books are most wanted in an electronic format. The study was conducted using a survey, observation with interviews, reference analysis and document analysis. The study group consisted of 13 students of education. The main findings of the study are derived from the combined observation sessions and interviews. The possibilities of utilizing e-books are not common knowledge, but the informants are enthusiastic to try after getting properly instructed. E-books are regarded as a vital source especially in distance learning. Most significant reasons for not adopting e-books for use are the lack of knowledge and inconvenience of reading on the screen, which also causes difficulties in conceptualizing the structure of an e-book. People like to read texts on the screen as shortly as possible, so the most appropriate types of the e-books are thought to be especially encyclopaedias, dictionaries and other reference materials. The main implications of the study are: 1) More effort should be put in teaching, promoting and marketing the e-books for the students, so that the library’s e-book collections would be used in more extensive way, and 2) the general ways of using e-books should be taken into account in developing the library’s e-book collections.