Use of E-books in an Academic and Research Environment - Essay Example

E-mail questionnaires were sent which facilitated the survey of researches in the academic and research environment, specifically in the Indian Institute of Science and Technology about their use of e-books on their line of work. This helped the researchers gather pertinent information on the completion of the research. The survey was done in July 2004 and was drafted according to the objectives drawn by the researchers which gave birth to 27 questions. Of the 101 questionnaires that were completed, 85 (84.

15 percent) were from students, 16 (15.84 percent) were from staff. Of the surveyed respondents, 37 were able to use the free trial offer between June and July 2004. This data represents 36.63 percent of the 101 respondents and 1.66 staff as a whole. Meanwhile, the results showed that 29.40 percent or 60 of the 101 had used e-books at least once. Simply put, the responses gathered from the data gathering procedure show that the students are more inclined in this kind of technology more than the faculty members and staff.

For faculty member and staff surveyed who are using e-books tend to use them as a reference and technical materials. It is, therefore, safe to say that the comparison of the usage of e-books with the numbers of students and degrees within the different departments shows no correlation. Similarly, there is no correlation between e-book usage and internet usage. Since the proportion of students who use e-books and answered the questionnaire is basically greater than the proportion of the staff, this shows that young people are more inclined into this kind of technology.

Among the surveyed respondents, most of them read their books on-screen while only a few of them print the material as a hard copy. The respondents also gave some comments and suggestions on the improvement of e-book usage. The usual hindrance why some people opt not to use e-book is the amount of the e-book itself and the equipment needed to access it. The majority of the respondents, meanwhile, claimed that nothing can replace reading the "real books" since e-books, they said are hard to access and read.

The use of e-books has already evolved over the years. For people who are always on the go and need to bring a lot of documents and reading with them, the e-book can serve as a perfect solution. However, it is also true that e-books may sometimes be hard to read. In addition, not all people have the means to have the equipment needed in accessing and reading it. Bottom line is, e-books can help an individual according to his own lifestyle.