Awareness and Use of Electronic Books among Undergraduate Students: A Survey

The increasingly growth of electronic books has created an enabling access to and use of e-prints within the confine of one’s environment; thereby providing wider accessibility and usability. However, the study investigated the awareness and use of electronic books among undergraduate students in Afe Babalola University Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria. A survey research design was adopted and structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Descriptive statistics was used to answer the research questions. The study revealed that most of the respondents are partially aware of the availability of e-book in their area of specialization, dedicated e-book reader devices (e.g. Kindle, Sony reader) and e-book open access sites. The findings also indicated that they are not aware on how to access e-books in the library webpage. It also reveals that they do not use e-book from the university’s library webpage, as long as they could get the desired books from the university library. The findings revealed that majority of the respondents use e-books for project/research work, term paper, course assignment, learning more about a subject and for seminar presentation. The study shows that most of the respondents preferred PDF as a convenient format to use e-books. The challenges encountered are inactive/dead link, unaware of where to locate needed e-books and poor Internet connection. The study recommends that university libraries as a matter of necessity, should at intervals, sensitize and equip students with the knowledge and skills to access and use e-books. They should also provide effective Wi-Fi platform to enable effective access to Internet