A "Disciplined" approach to promoting E-Books to faculty

Abstract

HKBU Library is planning a discipline specific approach to promoting eBooks with our faculty – key players in the acceptance and use of eBooks throughout the campus. We will be developing and promoting a series of faculty workshops that highlight eBooks through a disciplinary perspective, allowing us to highlight useful packages and features that may vary between disciplines. We will also use the workshops as an opportunity to gain knowledge about faculty attitudes, perceptions and behaviours via discussion and a brief, focused questionnaire. We will be trying to answer the following questions:

1. Will discipline specific approaches to promoting/teaching about eBooks to faculty be effective?

2. Do faculty use eBooks?

If yes, what do they like, what do they not like?

If no, what are the barriers to use?

This paper will report on several aspects of this endeavour. We will examine the advantages and disadvantages of promoting eBooks by discipline rather than by platform or generically. We will report on the focus of our workshops such as various access methods, various platform models, added-value features of eBooks, and report on the faculty response to each of these topics. We will also incorporate a brief questionnaire at the beginning of the workshop to determine current use patterns, and current attitudes about eBooks. This information will be useful for further promotion, instruction and for providing feedback to vendors about their products.