Abstract
This study explores the perception of e-books among a population of 103
regular Internet users. It aims to gauge
the opinions and reactions of an already technophilic population to the
increasing phenomenon of the e-book experience.
A literature search was conducted initially to outline areas of
discussion. A survey was made available
and Respondents invited to answer both Qualitative and Quantitative Questions. Grounded Theory was used to analyse the data
and further literature searches were conducted specific to concerns raised by Respondents.
It was found that, despite the niche aspect of the population, the
majority of Respondents did not read e-books and preferred ‘hard-copy’
books. Many Respondents thought that the
concept of e-books was a good idea, but disliked the particulars of current
technology. Specifically, reading from
the screen generated negative Responses, as did the problem of being reliant on
large or heavy hardware. Responses
suggested that readers are more likely to choose to read a non-fiction e-book
than an e-book novel. Conclusions drawn
are that, whereas e-books are an exciting innovation, current trends make this
a non-viable option for the would-be bestselling author.
Introduction
Background
In a previous essay, Publish or
Perish – The Case of Vanity and Self-Publishing, I put forward an analysis
of the merits of Vanity and Self-Publishing.
For the e-book version of this project, a copy of the essay will be
appended to the end of the project as Appendix F. As part of this analysis I touched briefly on
‘New Technology’ in Publishing, namely Print On Demand (POD) and e-books. I have been considering self-publishing my
own novel and have deliberated between traditional printed book (‘hard-copy’) format
and e-book format. Having conducted
research into what e-books are and how to produce and sell them, I still had
doubts as to the predictability of sales.
I realised that, whereas journalists’, web designers’ and authors’
opinions on the subject are available, nowhere have I seen an exploration of
the general reading public’s view on e-books.
I decided on this as a topic for my project.
Due to the method of data collection (i.e. an Internet survey), it quickly
became apparent that Respondents would not be the general reading public, but a
niche section of the public – that is: people who use the Internet on a very
regular basis. For this reason, the
sub-heading of this project was changed from ‘an exploration of the public
perception of e-books’ to ‘an exploration of the Internet community’s
perception of e-books’.
In the spirit of the endeavour, I have conducted the literature search almost
entirely on the Internet and used software packages to collect Responses and analyse
the results. Apart from the seminal work
on Grounded Theory by Glaser
& Strauss (1967), I have not used any printed documentation during this
project until the final draft for assessment required of me by the university.
Definitions
There are several ways of writing ‘e-book’, but for this project, I will
use this way unless directly quoting. The
term ‘e-book’ means ‘electronic book’, the ‘e’ being an abbreviation for
‘electronic’ as also in ‘e-mail’, ‘e-commerce’.
The terms ‘e-publishing’ and ‘e-texts’ not only refer to the production
of e-books, but to online magazines, personal and corporate websites, weblogs
(personal diaries that are publicly available online), electronic documentation
and other electronic media. This project
is not concerned with e-publishing in general, but specifically with e-books,
fiction and non-fiction.
Defining what is a ‘book’, i.e. what makes it different to another type
of document, becomes difficult when it is not printed and bound. For example, this project will be produced as
an e-book, but were it published using print media, would be a pamphlet or
merely a paper document to be submitted for assessment and passed around among
friends. As an e-book, it is a
standalone electronic file, as is a novel, a collection of poetry or the
complete works of Shakespeare.
Further definitions, however, need to be made. The term ‘e-book’ has been used to describe a
hardware/software combination (Morgan,
2001) in a similar way to using the word ‘notebook’ to describe a laptop or
portable personal computer. With this
definition, an ‘e-book’ is a physical object to carry around, rather than an
ethereal entity in the form of computer coded information.
For the purposes of this project, and the definition supplied to Respondents
before completing the survey: an e-book is the file itself, not the
hardware. An e-book is a book that is
produced in electronic form and may not even exist in physical, printed
form. It relies on an electronic device
such as PC or PDA, and appropriate software, to be read. “In their simplest form, eBooks are
electronic representations of books that are viewed in a software reader. Pages
can be “turned,” places can be “marked” and text can be searched.” (Woychowsky, 2004) Whereas the survey begins with a quick
definition of e-books, it was expected that Respondents’ answers would be based
on their own knowledge and assumptions of e-book software capabilities.
Literature Survey
Information Revolution
My research has shown that the creation of the e-book is generally
attributed to Michael Hart in 1971 with the founding of Project Gutenberg (Hart,
2004; Lebert, 2004; Vankin, 2002). Before this date, electronic books existed in
science fiction only, Star Trek the original
series beginning in 1966, is based on the ‘Captain’s Log’ an electronic journal
(Ordway, 2004). Throughout the
years that e-books existed for a small minority of dedicated computer-users,
they appeared to the general public to exist only in science fiction. The term ‘e-book’ itself did not appear in
common usage, nor did e-books themselves, until relatively recently with the increased
use and commercialisation of the Internet and the appearance of ‘read-only’
format readers such as Adobe Acrobat.
The choice of Gutenberg as a
title for the project was an allusion to the price of books (Vankin, 2002). The mass production of the printed book stems
from the invention of moveable type by Johannes Gutenberg in 1440 (Keep et al., 2000). Prior to the introduction of the Gutenberg
Press, a book would cost the equivalent of an average family farm, according to
Hart in his interview with Vankin
(2002). With the introduction of the
printing press, book prices were reduced to 1/400th of the previous
cost, thus making them affordable to more people. Using the technology available to him in
1971, Hart produced e-texts of various public domain books and documents (The American Declaration of Independence
was the first to be uploaded). In the
form of a computer file, these books cost 1/400th that of a printed
copy. As Hart states, this cost is
negligible and causes panic among those who expect to make money out of
publishing, not least would-be authors like myself.
The choice of which books should be uploaded is referred to as
‘democratic’ by Hart (Vankin,
2002). Eventually, he expects every
public domain text to be part of the project, but allows the project volunteers
to choose which ones they work on at any time.
Therefore those books and documents that are available are a combination
of obscure out-of-print texts, childhood favourites and literary classics. Project
Gutenberg continues to upload 350 free e-books every month (Lebert, 2004). They are available as unencrypted,
unprotected text documents which are offered for anyone to download for any
purpose, including reformatting into a more readable form and even reselling (Hart, 2004). These documents contain a disclaimer at the beginning
to ensure the project would not be sued if any text were missing or corrupted.
Much of the discussion available on Project
Gutenberg, and Internet literature in general, makes reference to copyright.
Copyright law is extended each time a new technology is produced to make
copying text easier (for example the invention of the Xerox machine). Hart believes that this is unfair. Copyright benefits a small portion of the
population (i.e. authors and publishers), while leaving large portions of the
population (i.e. the general reading public) with no benefit. Hart believes that copyright should run for
ten years at maximum. This way, authors
and publishers would have time to make their money before the text became
public domain and be of benefit to the wider public. In many ways, Project Gutenberg embodies the ethos of the Internet – free
information, freely available to all who choose, or have the ability, to access
it (Vankin, 2002).
The beauty of e-books, from a reader’s point of view, and nightmare from
a publisher’s point of view, is that one can copy the book easily and pass it
on, as with any other computer file. Hart’s
premise, that information should be available inclusively to the world and
copyright is undemocratic, is not shared by all producers of e-books who still
have issues with encryption and protection of text. There is also the issue of inherent value and
worth of a text.
Information Overload
In a world where anyone can write an e-book and produce it themselves (Westra, 2004), it is difficult
for a reader or potential reader to sift the wheat from the chaff. When too much information is available, it is
difficult to fine-tune a search. Anyone
who has typed a generic search term into an Internet search engine such as
Google (www.google.com) and found
thousands, sometimes millions of links returned will have been faced with the
daunting prospect of too much choice.
A novel or work of fiction that has been published traditionally, in
print media and through a publisher, might be afforded more inherent value by a
reader/purchaser than a book that might be assumed to have not undergone a
rigorous editorial process. An e-book
novel that already exists in print, or is written by a popular author is more
likely to sell. In the best-selling
e-books for August 2004, listed by the Open Book Forum (OeBF,
2004), Dan Brown’s recent novel The Da
Vinci Code, was number 1 and Angels
and Demons by the same author number 2.
Stephen King’s self-published e-book The Plant was released in instalments
downloadable from the official Stephen King website in 2001. 172,004 people paid $1 for the first
instalment of the novel, and 74,373 paid $1 for the second instalment (Carnell, 2001). At the time, this was far more sales than any
other e-book novel, self-published or otherwise (Sipos, 2001).
Simply being published by a traditional publisher is no guarantee of
worth: a person with celebrity status can write a best-seller irrespective of
their writing talent. There may be self-published
jewels on the market, tragically ignored by booksellers and the general
public. Without a name or a sales
gimmick (or a huge marketing budget), it is an almost insurmountable task for
an unknown author to make a profit from print-media self-publishing (Adams, 1999; Sipos, 2001). Publishing an e-book, is free, if time and
effort are not counted and the writer already has computer and Internet
access. It could be argued therefore,
that the badly-written books, or those over which less care has been taken, are
more likely to be found among the self-published e-books than any other media. These are the books which afford the author/publisher
almost 100% profit due to the lack of finances and effort necessary to produce
them.
The egalitarian nature of the Internet – that each document is afforded
the same value as the next – makes buying an e-book a risky business, but it is
no real risk if the book is offered for free.
Many e-book sales sites offer free e-books to entice purchasers. For example, ebookdirectory’s ‘Featured
Free eBooks’ list for September 2004 includes the following: The Science of Getting Rich; 30 Days To
Success; Affiliate Masters Course e-book; How to Earn Money with Affiliate
Programs.
Also fictionwise
offers free e-books to subscribers as a way of enticing them to purchase other
non-free books. Examples from September
2004 selection include: Don Ysidro by
Bruce Holland Rogers (a short story); The
9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks
Upon the United States; Oxford Paperback Thesaurus; Oxford Concise Medical
Dictionary; A Dictionary of World History; Pocket Oxford English Spanish
Dictionary; In Spirit by Pat Forde (Science Fiction).
As can be seen from these examples, many more non-fiction free e-books
are available than novels. Many e-books
offered for free seem to have a common theme, and are used to sell other
products or marketing strategies. In
terms of the usability and popularity of e-books, there seems to be a
distinction between fiction and non-fiction.
Whereas this study involves fiction and non-fiction, e-book novels are
of particular interest to the author, for reasons outlined in the Background
section above.
The Rising or Falling Popularity of e-books
Many reviewers regard the e-book phenomenon with scepticism and consider them as publicity stunts such as Stephen King’s The Plant (Rikke, 1999) mentioned earlier. Of the Internet discussion assessed for my essay Publish or Perish – The Case of Vanity and Self-Publishing, some journalists considered e-books to be a ‘flash in the pan’ or novelty that would fizzle out in time. Rikke (1999) suggests that publishing houses have been very wary of e-books.
In that essay I reported that sales of
e-book novels were slowing (it was written in April 2004). Bookbooters.com had ceased to take on new
authors but were continuing with the retail side of their business. However, according to the Open Book Forum,
e-book sales for the first quarter of 2004 are 46% higher
than the same period of 2003, with revenues 28% higher (OeBF,
2004). This
indicates, not only that e-books are becoming more popular, but also that the
price of e-books is dropping. Perhaps
this is a deliberate ploy by the e-book industry as further enticement to buy,
a reaction to competition or consumer force, or simply a side effect of the
gradual decrease in the price of technology.
Factors Influencing The Purchase of e-books
Many factors influence the purchase of books, from the marketing
strategies of the publishers (including cover design, advertising, product
placement and paid-for bookshop displays) to the interests of the purchaser and
desire for a particular genre or subject.
Interest, whim and providence all take part in the purchase of any book. In addition to this, certain specific
characteristics of e-books must influence a purchaser – for example, one
requires access to the technology to read the e-book. Further, most e-book sales are conducted
on-line over the Internet using electronic payments. Thus Internet access and a credit card are
needed to purchase an e-book (together with the confidence to make an
e-commerce transaction). A person who is
not able – or not comfortable – to make electronic payments, is excluded from
the purchase of an e-book. A person who
is not able – or not comfortable – to use advanced technology might also find
themselves excluded from this option.
Therefore, it might be argued that e-books belong to an e-communication
niche and are thus on the fringes of the publishing world. E-books that are offered for free, however,
such as Project Gutenberg’s books
(and this document) do not suffer from the e-commerce problem, although free
books suffer the problem of having perceived low value as mentioned earlier.
Distribution of e-books: Ease or Problem?
Thousands of e-books are easily accessible to those with computer and
Internet access, they can be downloaded in a matter of minutes so no walking to
the bookshop or waiting for delivery.
Distribution could not be easier.
However, for those with no Internet access, most of these e-books will
be unavailable as they are often not provided in CD-ROM format. For those with no computer, who might want to
view an e-book for instance in a library, this too may seem an insurmountable
task. The fact that e-books cater for a
niche market means that they only distribute to that market and vice
versa. Until the distribution problem is
resolved, e-books will always be on that fringe.
The Impact of Technology on Health
Currently there is no standard for e-book readers (Woychowsky, 2004) which means
that there are a wide variety of different technologies available. Some software readers are designed for
specific hardware, some are generic and can be used on a home PC. All readers, however, require the text to be
read from a screen or monitor of some sort: that is the nature of an
e-book. Monitors have improved over the
past few decades yet eye-strain is still a worry for regular computer
users. Research is being conducted on
improving screen-reading, for example, spectacles designed specifically for VDU
users (Horgen et al., 2004) but the
technology is not yet available to make reading from the screen as comfortable
as reading printed text. Also, to be
considered is the fact that home users are often far behind current technology
in that they may be using second-hand hardware or hardware that was purchased
by themselves a decade or more ago.
The impact of computers on public health is a subject that is often
raised during discussion of e-books and computer use in general. Not only is eye-strain a perceived problem,
but posture and neck tension (Wahlstrom et al., 2004) and repeated
use of forearm muscles leading to pain (Kryger et al., 2003).
Scope for e-books
What makes e-books distinct from conventional hard-copy text, and is
therefore their unique selling point, is the fact that they can be treated as a
computer file, with all the benefits that entails. An e-book can be searched, text can be easily
copied (in some readers), portions of text can be shared between users, a
particular page or section can be accessed readily.
One of the major benefits of e-books is the use of ‘hyperlinks’ whereby a
word or phrase can be clicked with the computer mouse or pointer and the user
is taken to another area of text or image that is linked. This is particularly useful for manuals and
non-fiction which lend themselves to being read in a non-linear fashion. The document you are reading uses
hyperlinking when references appear in the text, and this is something that the
author has seen used widely in research articles available over the Internet.
Another benefit of e-books not available to hard-copy is the option of
sound and animation as part of the ‘e-book experience’. Again this is more likely to be of use in
non-fiction, such as encyclopaedias, but it is becoming extremely popular in
children’s fiction for example the Living
Book series (available at http://www.surpluscdrom.com/livingbooks1.html).
These are illustrated books on CDROM
that can be read from the screen and interacted with, they also include sound
and visual effects and games. It may be
the case that interactive books are much more likely to replace television
rather than hard-copy books. In the
author’s household, the non-interactive television is regularly supplanted by
the computer as a form of entertainment.
The use of hyperlinking and multimedia may not at first sight seem
appropriate to the reader of novels.
However, there are a number of points to consider. When reading a classic text, for pleasure or
for study, it is often very useful to have annotated notes to hand –
hyperlinking would streamline this process.
Many literature courses require the study of texts several centuries
old. In these cases it would be useful
to have access to translation material within the text without the need to
constantly flick pages back and forth.
It may also be useful to hear the text read aloud in some cases,
Chaucer’s Cantebury Tales for example
is much easier to understand if heard; short visual sequences from
Shakespeare’s plays might pique the interest of the weary student. It could be argued that what is being
described is still non-fiction work as it is related to studying the text, but
it is nonetheless and important point to consider.
Non-linear novels, in terms of method of reading, are rare; most readers
would expect to begin at the front of the book and read every page until the
end. Some books, however, are designed
not to be read from cover to cover. Genres
of ‘consequences’, detective and adventure novels are available where the
reader chooses (or rolls a dice to dictate) which path to follow. These were very popular in the 1980’s before general
high-graphic computer use and dwindled with the arrival of avatar-games such as
Lara Croft. They are, nevertheless, still produced in
their original form (Thorne,
1999) and also often go with role-playing game scenarios such as Dungeons and Dragons (available at http://www.powells.com/subsection/RolePlayingGamesDungeonsandDragons.html). The type of non-linear consumption novel
where the reader chooses the direction, and reads in an irregular way is
precisely the kind of novel that would benefit from the e-book format. It might even provide computerised dice and
also include some multimedia to enhance its appeal. At this point there would be a blurred
distinction between whether this item would be classed as a ‘book’ or a ‘game’
which is a whole new project!
Design
This exploration is based on a public survey that was available over the Internet
during September 2004 (a printed copy of
the survey can be found in Appendix
A). The survey consisted of nine
questions, a combination of closed and open questions and therefore analysis is
both Quantitative and Qualitative. An
optional tenth question gave Respondents the opportunity to supply their email
address if they wished to be notified as to the results of the survey. For reasons of anonymity, the answers to this
question will not be published.
Questions were answered on-line by ticking boxes or typing into text-areas,
thus eliminating the need for paper and postage but limiting the Respondents to
the computer literate with Internet access.
The survey was advertised on a number of websites,
Bias and Limitations
The author freely admits to having a vested interest in e-books as she
has considered self-publishing by this method and would use the results of this
study in the decision-making process. No
decision has been made as far as e-books are concerned and this will probably
continue to be the case once this study is completed, but hopefully the author
will have a clearer picture of the perception of the market after analysing
this data.
Although the author attempted to reach a wide range of Respondents for
the study, it is expected that, as with any survey of this type, those who already
have an interest in the subject matter are more likely to respond. The scope of this project is also narrow as
the number of Responses where limited by the survey software used, and once 103
Responses had been received, the survey closed automatically. As the Responses to postings were quite
swift, and several disappointed emails from potential Respondents were received
after the survey had closed, it might be expected that a further study with
perhaps 1000 Respondents would yield more data.
This would, however, be a larger project with a larger budget.
Results
Tables of raw data for Quantitative Questions can be found within this
section and for the Qualitative Data in Appendix C but an analysis of
these results follows. It was the
original intention to correlate age-range and Internet usage habits with
reading habits and positive or negative remarks about e-books. Unfortunately the software used for the survey
(www.surveymonkey.com) did not
return individual Respondents’ answers, so this is impossible. However it is possible to summarise the
general habits of the Respondents using the Quantitative results and the Qualitative
results will be analysed using NVivo (NUD*IST Vivo) software tool (QSR Projects, 2000).
In this section, the results will be displayed in tables and charts but
not discussed. Close analysis of the
results will be made in the Discussion.
Quantitative Results
The following tables and charts outline the results for the Quantitative
Questions 1-5. Due to the nature of the
survey software, Respondents had the choice to not answer questions. It is therefore necessary to include the
total number of Respondents for each question and for ease of reference, the
number of Respondents who chose not to answer has been added to the
tables. Numbers of Respondents and
percentages of the total are both included in the tables and the figure(s) that
represent the most recurrent incident(s) are highlighted in bold. Percentage frequencies are used in this
analysis due to the disparity between the number of Respondents answering each
question.
Questions 1 & 2
The charts give an indication of the particulars of the population
canvassed. For example, in regard to Q1
and Q2, it can be seen that this population is mainly between the ages of 21
and 40 (21-30: 48.51%; 31-40: 19.8%) and the overwhelming majority use the
Internet on a daily basis (81.37%).
Figures 1 to 4 are representations of this data in table and chart
format.
|
1 Please select your
age-range from the choices given below |
||
|
|
|
% of Total Respondents |
|
0-15 |
5 |
4.95 |
|
16-20 |
16 |
15.84 |
|
21-30 |
49 |
48.51 |
|
31-40 |
20 |
19.80 |
|
41-50 |
6 |
5.94 |
|
50+ |
5 |
4.95 |
|
Total Respondents |
101 |
|
|
Skipped This Question |
2 |
|
|
2 Please indicate what
your internet habits are (i.e. how often you go online and browse the web) |
||
|
|
|
% of Total
Respondents |
|
Every day |
83 |
81.37 |
|
Several times per week |
16 |
15.69 |
|
Once per week |
3 |
2.94 |
|
Several times per month |
0 |
0.00 |
|
Once per month |
0 |
0.00 |
|
Rarely |
0 |
0.00 |
|
This is my very first
time! |
0 |
0.00 |
|
Total Respondents |
102 |
|
|
Skipped This Question |
1 |
|
Figure 4. Q2 Chart of Results
Question 3
Q3 focussed on the types of books read by the Respondents. It seems that the majority of Respondents ‘never’ read e-books, whether fiction (55.32%) or non-fiction (34.04%) and few read them ‘frequently’ (2.13%; 7.45%) or ‘all the time’ (3.19%; 7.45%). Non-fiction e-books are read more often than fiction, and this is also represented in the Qualitative data (see later section). Conversely, fiction hard-copy books are read more often by this population than non-fiction hard-copy. The most evenly distributed incidence of reading in this population is non-fiction hard-copy, with the two most popular answers being ‘occasionally’ (32.98%) and ‘frequently’ (35.11%). Hard-copy novels are read ‘all the time’ by the majority of Respondents (37.23%).
Figures 5a, 5b and 6 are representations of the data gained from Q3. Figures 5a and 5b are table representations (separated due to space on page). Figure 6 a chart that maps the Responses visually to give an instant picture. This chart highlights the similarity between the figures of both types of e-books compared with both types of hard-copy.
|
3 How often do you read
the following types of books? (% of Total
Respondents in Green) |
||||||
|
|
Never |
Rarely |
Occasionally |
|||
|
Non-fiction - e-books |
32 |
34.04 |
22 |
23.40 |
21 |
22.34 |
|
Novels – e-books |
52 |
55.32 |
20 |
21.28 |
11 |
11.70 |
|
Non-fiction - hard copy |
2 |
2.13 |
14 |
14.89 |
31 |
32.98 |
|
Novels - hard copy |
9 |
9.57 |
11 |
11.70 |
16 |
17.02 |
Figure 5a. Q3 Table of Results
|
3 How often do you read
the following types of books? (% of Total
Respondents in Green) |
|||||
|
|
Frequently |
All the time |
Response Total |
||
|
Non-fiction - e-books |
7 |
7.45 |
7 |
7.45 |
89 |
|
Novels – e-books |
2 |
2.13 |
3 |
3.19 |
88 |
|
Non-fiction - hard copy |
33 |
35.11 |
12 |
12.77 |
92 |
|
Novels - hard copy |
23 |
24.47 |
35 |
37.23 |
94 |
|
|
Total Respondents |
94 |
|||
|
|
Skipped This Question |
9 |
|||
Figure 5b. Q3 Table of Results
Questions 4 & 5
The last two Quantitative Questions asked Respondents to select from a list of reasons why they read fiction (Q4) or non-fiction (Q5). More than one reason can be selected in these questions. The tables in Figures 7 and 9 represent the results from these questions and the charts in Figures 8 and 10 are graphic representations of this data. The majority of people reported that they read fiction for ‘pleasure’ (84.62%) and ‘escape’ (63.74%). However, non-fiction is read by this population mostly ‘to improve my mind’ (79.35%), although it is also often read for ‘pleasure’ (53.26%).
|
4 I read fiction
because (tick all that apply) |
% of
Total Respondents |
|
|
Pleasure |
77 |
84.62 |
|
Escape |
58 |
63.74 |
|
To improve my
mind |
51 |
56.04 |
|
School/college
curriculum |
16 |
17.58 |
|
Because I think I
should |
11 |
12.09 |
|
Don't read
fiction |
7 |
7.69 |
|
Total Respondents |
91 |
|
|
Skipped This
Question |
12 |
|
|
5 I read
non-fiction because (tick all that apply) |
% of
Total Respondents |
|
|
Pleasure |
49 |
53.26 |
|
Escape |
18 |
19.57 |
|
To improve my mind |
73 |
79.35 |
|
School/college
curriculum |
40 |
43.48 |
|
Because I think I
should |
20 |
21.74 |
|
Don't read
non-fiction |
8 |
8.70 |
|
Total Respondents |
92 |
|
|
Skipped This
Question |
11 |
|
Figure 10. Q5 Chart of Results
Qualitative Results
The four Qualitative Questions (Q6-Q9) were interrelated and will be
analysed both separately and together. The
actual questions and the number of Respondents for each are detailed in the
table in Figure 11.
|
Question |
Number of Respondents |
Skipped this Question |
|
6. What would be your main reasons for reading an e-book? |
79 |
24 |
|
7. What would be your main reasons for not reading an e-book? |
84 |
19 |
|
8. What would entice you to read a novel in e-book format for the
first time? (only answer if you have never read an e-book novel) |
60 |
43 |
|
9. What do you think of the concept of e-books? |
81 |
22 |
Figure 11. Qualitative Q6-Q9 Number of Respondents
Again, it is not possible due to the nature of the software used, to
distinguish whether Q7;14 (for
example) originated from the same respondent as Q8;14, therefore Responses are entirely randomised and no
correlations between Responses to different questions have been drawn. For the purposes of this project, simple
analysis of the general ‘feeling’ of this population towards e-books has been
explored.
The raw data from each of the four Qualitative Questions was copied into
four separate documents and imported into NVivo (NUD*IST Vivo) software tool,
version 1.3.146 (QSR Projects). It was then analysed using a simple version
of Grounded Theory (Glaser
& Strauss 1967). This consists
of first reading through the Responses, then beginning to develop ‘Categories’,
i.e. Themes particular to Responses. An
example of a Category used in this analysis is ‘Screen-reading’: any response
that made reference to reading text from a computer screen was assigned to this
category.
In Grounded Theory, each response or part of a response is assigned to
one or more category; this is referred to as ‘coding’. Each document is analysed in this way, adding
categories as needed, until all documents have been coded. Then the first document is again analysed,
coding any Responses that have previously been missed and continuing to generate
categories. The method is repeated until
no new categories emerge from the data. Grounded
Theory aims to generate theory through inductive examination of data,
generating a theory that is ‘grounded’ in the natural context in which the
inquiry takes place (Priest et
al. 2002). For the purposes of this
study, little ‘theory’ will be generated, but only the methodology of coding used. This is quite common among inexperienced
researchers, “what studies describe as ‘grounded theory’ is limited primarily
to the utilisation of the now well-known analytical procedures and not to the
development of any substantive theory per
se.” (Priest et al. 2002).
Grounded Theory is a process by which Qualitative Data to be analysed in
a Quantitative way. Once Themes have
been established, instances of those Themes that arise can be counted and
ranked into the most common for all Respondents.
Transcriptions of the raw data from this study appear in Appendix C. Examples of coded Responses will be given in
the Discussion
below. Category titles are used in this
analysis, but a list of Theme Categories and their descriptions can be found in
Appendix D. As seen in Figure 11, the total number of Responses
for each question differed, the overall total being 304 Responses. There are 90 Theme Categories in all. The
Theme Categories are related to the content of the Responses, and each response
can be coded for several different Theme Categories (the mean coding per
response is 3.73, see Appendix E
for more detail).
Once coding was completed on the Theme Categories, it became apparent to
the author that 90 different Themes, governing 1139 instances of a Theme, would
render analysis extremely unwieldy, therefore it was decided to also categorise
each response into one of three Value
Categories. The Value Categories will be
dealt with first in this analysis, for simplicity.
Value Categories
These categories are based on the overall value placed by the respondent
on e-books and are POSITIVE, NEGATIVE and INDIFFERENT. Each Response
was assigned one Value and therefore the totals correspond to the total number
of Responses. The ‘Positive’ Value was
placed on Responses that indicated that, overall, e-books are a positive
phenomenon. Likewise, the ‘Negative’ Value
was placed on Responses that indicated that e-books are a negative
phenomenon. The ‘Indifferent’ Value was
placed, both on those Responses which did not state a judgement or where Respondents
stated that they did not care, and on Responses that gave both positive and
negative aspects of e-books within the same response. For example, Respondents often mentioned that
they thought e-books were a good idea but then qualified this by listing some
negative aspect of e-books.
Figure 12a is a table listing the numbers and percentages of the Value Categories
for each question, and Figure 12b the total Responses/percentages for all
questions (separated due to space on page). As with the Quantitative Data, percentage
frequencies are used in this analysis due to the disparity between the number
of Respondents answering each question.
Percentages are green and the highest value in each column has been highlighted
in bold.
|
Categories |
Q
6 Resps |
% Total Resps |
Q
7 Resps |
% Total Resps |
Q
8 Resps |
% Total Resps |
Q
9 Resps |
% Total Resps |
|
POSITIVE |
38 |
48.10 |
2 |
2.38 |
14 |
23.33 |
24 |
30.00 |
|
NEGATIVE |
7 |
8.86 |
69 |
82.14 |
12 |
20.00 |
14 |
17.50 |
|
INDIFFERENT |
34 |
43.04 |
13 |
15.48 |
34 |
56.67 |
43 |
53.75 |
|
Total |
79 |
|
84 |
|
60 |
|
81 |
|
Figure 12a. Qualitative Questions Table of Results for Value Categories
|
Categories |
Total
Resps |
% Total Resps |
|
POSITIVE |
78 |
25.74 |
|
NEGATIVE |
102 |
33.66 |
|
INDIFFERENT |
124 |
40.92 |
|
Total |
304 |
|
Figure 12b. Totals Table of Results for Value Categories
Figures 13-16 are charts based on this data for each separate question
and Figure 17 is a chart of the totals.
Figure 13. Q6 Chart of Results for Value Categories
Figure 14. Q7 Chart of Results for Value Categories
Figure 15 Q8 Chart of Results for Value Categories
Figure 16. Q9 Chart of Results for Value Categories
Figure 17. Chart of Total Results for Value Categories
Theme Categories
The full table for the Theme Categories (90 in all) is vast and has
therefore been consigned to Appendix F. The analysis will be based on only those Theme
Categories that rendered 15 or more instances, unless there is a specific
confliction of the data (for example 76 Responses relate to the respondent
preferring hard-copy and 2 Responses to the respondent preferring to read an
e-book).
There are 24 Theme Categories rendering 15 or more instances in total. Figure 18a is a table of results for these selected Theme Categories for Q6-8 and Figure 18a is the same table for Q9 and totals (separated due to space on page). They are ranked in order of the most common total occurrence (i.e. the last column on the right). In each column, relating to the separate questions, the highest ranking Themes are highlighted in bold. High-ranking Themes can be expressed as Themes that render 20 or more codings within the question. An ‘Other’ Category has been added to the table in Figure 18, to encompass the other 66 Categories not listed, so that the figures for ‘Total Passages Coded’ and ‘Mean Coding Per Response’ tally with the figures in the full table in Appendix F.
It can be seen from these tables that instances of different Themes occurred with greater frequency within the different questions. For example, in Q6 ‘[e-book] Availability’ (36), ‘Hard-copy availability’ (27) and ‘Ease’ (21) are the highest ranking Themes. In Q7 ‘Screen-reading’ (38), ‘Eyes’(34), ‘Computer Use’(28), ‘Prefer hard-copy’ (28), ‘Non-portability’ (23), ‘Impact on health’ (22) and ‘Discomfort’ (21) were the highest ranking Themes. Q8 had no high-ranking themes, ‘Prefer hard-copy’ being the highest at 18. In Q9, the only high-ranking theme is ‘Good idea’ (38), with ‘Prefer hard-copy’ closely missing high-ranking status at 19.
The highest-ranking Theme overall is ‘Prefer hard-copy’ at 76 instances
(25% of total Responses). This can be
seen to be due to the fact that this Theme ranks highly within the majority of
questions.
Mean codings (i.e. total number of coded Themes divided by total number of Respondents) also differed for each Question. Q8 rendered the least number of codings per respondent (2.57) and Q7 the most (4.11). Q7 also generated the most (84) Respondents than any other question. It seems that Respondents had more to say on negative aspects of e-books than on any other topic.
Many more Theme Categories arose from Q9 (75) than the other questions (46; 43; 43). However, excepting Q8, there is little difference between the total number of passages coded for each question (Q6: 311; Q7: 345; Q8: 154; Q9: 350). Therefore it can be seen that Q6 and Q7 represent more congruence and agreement between Respondents within each question than Q9. This can also be demonstrated by noting that Q6 and especially Q7 contain more high-ranking Themes than Q8 and Q9, as mentioned previously.
|
Categories |
Q 6 Insts |
% Total Resps |
Q 7 Insts |
% Total Resps |
Q 8 Insts |
% Total Resps |
|
Prefer hard-copy |
11 |
13.92 |
28 |
33.33 |
18 |
30.00 |
|
Hard-copy availability |
27 |
34.18 |
7 |
8.33 |
11 |
18.33 |
|
Availability |
36 |
45.57 |
0 |
0.00 |
2 |
3.33 |
|
Computer use |
8 |
10.13 |
28 |
33.33 |
2 |
3.33 |
|
Screen-reading |
0 |
0.00 |
38 |
45.24 |
3 |
5.00 |
|
Eyes |
0 |
0.00 |
34 |
40.48 |
1 |
1.67 |
|
Good idea |
0 |
0.00 |
0 |
0.00 |
0 |
0.00 |
|
Inexpensive |
17 |
21.52 |
0 |
0.00 |
13 |
21.67 |
|
Technology |
4 |
5.06 |
11 |
13.10 |
3 |
5.00 |
|
|
1 |
1.27 |
17 |
20.24 |
2 |
3.33 |
|
Ease |
21 |
26.58 |
0 |
0.00 |
1 |
1.67 |
|
Necessity |
14 |
17.72 |
2 |
2.38 |
7 |
11.67 |
|
Impact on health |
0 |
0.00 |
22 |
26.19 |
0 |
0.00 |
|
Non-portability |
0 |
0.00 |
23 |
27.38 |
1 |
1.67 |
|
Discomfort |
1 |
1.27 |
21 |
25.00 |
0 |
0.00 |
|
Same reason as hard-copy |
6 |
7.59 |
4 |
4.76 |
13 |
21.67 |
|
Design of reader |
0 |
0.00 |
8 |
9.52 |
7 |
11.67 |
|
Not for me |
0 |
0.00 |
1 |
1.19 |
5 |
8.33 |
|
Internet use |
6 |
7.59 |
3 |
3.57 |
4 |
6.67 |
|
Libraries - bookshops |
7 |
8.86 |
3 |
3.57 |
0 |
0.00 |
|
Reference - resource |
12 |
15.19 |
2 |
2.38 |
0 |
0.00 |
|
Convenience |
13 |
16.46 |
0 |
0.00 |
0 |
0.00 |
|
Not-tangible |
5 |
6.33 |
11 |
13.10 |
0 |
0.00 |
|
Future |
0 |
0.00 |
0 |
0.00 |
0 |
0.00 |
|
(Other) |
122 |
|
82 |
|
61 |
|
|
Total Passages Coded |
311 |
|
345 |
|
154 |
|
|
Total Respondents For This Question |
79 |
|
84 |
|
60 |
|
|
Mean Coding Per Response |
3.94 |
|
4.11 |
|
2.57 |
|
|
Total Theme Categories Used in This Question |
46 |
|
43 |
|
43 |
|
Figure 18a. Results for Selected Theme Categories for Q6-Q8
|
Categories |
Q 9 Insts |
% Total Resps |
Total Insts |
% Total Resps |
|
Prefer hard-copy |
19 |
23.46 |
76 |
25.00 |
|
Hard-copy availability |
4 |
4.94 |
49 |
16.12 |
|
Availability |
10 |
12.35 |
48 |
15.79 |
|
Computer use |
10 |
12.35 |
48 |
15.79 |
|
Screen-reading |
6 |
7.41 |
47 |
15.46 |
|
Eyes |
5 |
6.17 |
40 |
13.16 |
|
Good idea |
38 |
46.91 |
38 |
12.50 |
|
Inexpensive |
7 |
8.64 |
37 |
12.17 |
|
Technology |
14 |
17.28 |
32 |
10.53 |
|
|
11 |
13.58 |