Use of Electronic Text Books (E-Books) By Undergraduate Students in Sri Lanka: The Challenge for Academic and Research Libraries in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Electronic books have become very popular among readersrecently with the latest advancement of science and equipments and as a result of this,many universities across the globe have adopted and introduced the concept of E-Books (Electronic books) in to their academic and research libraries.However the E-Books (Electronic books) concept is still at its infancy in Sri Lanka and so far very little research work had been conducted in Sri Lanka to investigate its impact on country’s academic environment. Therefore this study was designed in order to understand Student’s perception of E-Books (Electronic books) in an academic environment.An anonymous questionnaire based on voluntary participation of the students, was distributed among the first year undergraduate students from the faculty of Allied Health Sciences at General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University Sri Lanka and descriptive statistics were used for reporting purposes.The sample was made of 174 students (67 males, 107 females) and 91 (52.29%) of them had used E-Books (Electronic books) previously for their studies as a standard reading material. Based on the responses received, 39% of the students preferred to read E-books over hard copy version books and the factors which may have affected their current preference to use hard copy books over E-books were also identified.156 students (89.65%), suggested that they would use E-books more frequently for their academic studies, if the recommended text books were available electronically in the university library and most astonishing finding of this study was that 97.12% (169 students) of them believed that the E-book concept will have a stronger impact on Sri Lanka academic environment in future. Therefore future financial investments for E-books need to be implemented as these have a great potential to offer great benefits and endless opportunities to academics, students and research institutions& librariesin Sri Lanka.