Elektroniska böcker på bibliotek: Bibliotekariers och användares syn på elektroniska böcker utifrån intervjuer och samtal

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to describe how librarians and users think of electronic books in libraries. My questions are: -What are electronic books, and how do they work? -How has electronic books been implemented by librarians in the libraries and on the libraries’ websites? -How do users describe their view of electronic books? -How do the librarians and users think of electronic book in the future? To be able to answer these questions I have studied relevant literature, made qualitative interviews with two librarians at two similar libraries and I had dialogues with several users Electronic books were introduced 2002 at the two libraries. In the beginning the libraries made different types of marketing, but today they only have the website with information. Their purpose was to try this out and offer the users a new media. So far, there are few users who borrow these books, and maybe it depends on technical conditions. According to the dialogues I had, most of the users have no idea what electronic books are. The advantages of electronic books, according to the users, are a fast way to reach a book, it is cheap and you do not have to return the book. The drawbacks are a limited choice of books Some of the users thought they were difficult to use and preferred books with printed text. However, both librarians and users think that electronic books will develop in different ways.