The Trend Analysis of E-book Research in Library and Information Studies
Date Issued
2012
Date
2012
Author(s)
Hu, Te-Chia
Abstract
The research field of ebook has faced its first transforming period. From the earliest launch of Project Gutenberg in 1971, the direction, content, technologies and formats of ebook has been through continuous and rapid change. And these changes also shape the patterns that identify the modern users and readers of ebook. While 2010 is recognized as the first year of the ebook era by publishers, vendors and stakeholders, it is believed that the general development of the ebook industry is getting steady and ready for the next burst of innovations. In this vein, the present study summarizes a quantitative synthesis of studies of ebook in the past 30 years, it examines the critical issues, trends and context of ebook research to form a theoretically solid basis that explains the ebook-related practices.
Library and information science has been chosen specifically as the target disciplinary area in this study for its long tradition of concentration on knowledge and resource organization. With the changing formats from print to digital, reactions and adjustment measures are taken by library and information institutions. Additionally, what has been found from the previous studies supports that researches about electronic resources have been of great significance in the field of library and information science. This study therefore takes a step forward to
qualitatively analyze and summary the issues and the interior change within the topic of ebook.
The results have shown a peak of the quantity of ebook studies in 2010, supporting the public acknowledgement of 2010 as the first year of the ebook era. Further analysis show that ebook studies have been through five significant stages: Initiate (1978-1991), Incubation (1992-1999), First Burst (2000-2002), Rally (2003-2007) and Rapid Growth (2008-2010). Nine issues are found significant in the overall 33 years of ebook research, among them the publishing of e-books, genesis of e-book, e-book in libraries, e-book market and e-book technology are the top 5 issues. These results reflect the transformation of ebook studies from the initial stage to the stably growth, stakeholders including the libraries, publishers and information institutions are getting to actively take part in the ebook business. It is also forecasted that the future trend of ebook studies shall step forward to more application- and problem-oriented ways, practical issues that benefits the practice directly, such as the format, regulation and usage will get more and more attention.
Subjects
e-book
trend analysis
bibliometrics
Type
thesis
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