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Fewer than one in ten students purchase e-books, while 88% of undergraduates still use printed books and lecturer handouts, academic publishers and booksellers have been told.
Yesterday, delegates at the Bookseller Association's Academic, Professional and Specialist group conference at the Walton Hall Hotel in Warwickshire heard that while 62% of students use e-books, they were not relied on as a ‘top three' main resource, and of those who downloaded digital titles, only 9% bought them, while 38% borrowed them from the library, Jo Henry, managing direct or of BML, said. She added that "unfortunately" the results of a BML survey taken in December 2011 showed nearly half the students using e-books downloaded them for free.
"Of those, 12% admitted to downloading them illegally while 34% said ‘maybe' they were being downloaded illegally. This may add some more fuel to the fire in the intellectual property debate," Henry said.
The BML study also showed that 88% of undergraduates still used printed books and lecturer handouts compared with 95% in 2003. The survey found further that online journals were growing in popularity, with nearly 80% of students embracing them, up from 66% in 2003. Of those students accessing printed books for their study, 48% mainly used the library to obtain them.
Henry said: "It is also clear second hand book buying is much more popular. These students are buying five new books a year. That is down from seven books a year when we did it in 2003."
Undergraduates will pay an average of £23 a book, which is up from £19 in 2003, she added.
"This is particularly important research as the higher education sector in the UK undergoes a radical shift, with an increase in student numbers as well as major changes in funding models and the technological landscape," Henry said. "Our goal is to enable publishers to stay ahead of trends and make informed business decisions."
BML said its student survey would now run annually, with the results of the 2011 study providing a new benchmark from which to monitor further changes over time.