Helps Usp of Available Courses
Summarize
of Unit Selling Point
CoursesAwarding BodyUnit Selling Point
American Degree Programme (ADP)
Majors In :
a)Business Administration
b)International Business BAO 2203 corporate accounting
c)MarketingSouthern New Hampshire University (SNHU)i)Recognized by U.S.
Regional Accreditation Board (NEASC) ii)Approved by the Ministry of Higher
Education (MOHE) of Malaysia iii)Fully accredited by LAN
iv)Selected lectures are conducted by SNHU professors
v)Online electronic library access to SNHU
vi)All entry requirements are governed by SNHU
vii)Follow the entire curriculum and recommended assessments, academic
guidelines strictly adhered to SNHU viii)Lecturers need to be approved as
adjunct faculty of SNHU prior to teaching the course ix)Examination papers are
moderated by SNHU faculty
x)Complete the entire degree in HICT Malaysia
External Programme , Bachelor of Science (Hons)
Majors In :
a)Accounting and Finance
b)Economics and Management
Coming Soon:
c)BusinessUniversity of London in Association with London School of Economics
(LSE)i)100% final exam based assessment ii)Exam paper set and mark by LSE
iii)Exam in KL, invigilated by Lembaga Peperiksaan Malaysia iv)Subject
guideline, past year exam paper and examination reports will be provided by LSE
v)World- wide recognition, therefore student might transfer to LSE or other
universities in UK, Australia, USA and Canada vi)Fully accredited by MOHE and
LAN
vii)Opportunity to obtain LSE external scholarship
viii)Maximum 9 exemptions by ACCA
CoursesAwarding BodyUnit Selling Point
London A LevelEdexceli)Gold standard pre-university qualification,
internationally recognized by top universities [eg: Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard
and etc] ii)Syllabus is relevant and updated
iii)Flexible subject combinations in Arts and Science
iv)Highly qualified & experience lecturers with PhDs and Masters v)Small
student-lecturer ratio
vi)Well equipped teaching resources and laboratory facilities
HICT Foundation Studies In
a)Business
b)ScienceHICTi)Fully accredited by LAN
ii)Internally Assessment
iii)Moderated by University of Adelaide, Australia
Diploma In BusinessHICTi)Internal assessment
ii)Recognized by universities in Australia, New Zealand, UK and USA
iii)Possibility to further to degree in Malaysia or overseas
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Engineering Programmes
a)2 + 2 Degree in Engineering (Electrical, Mechanical, Civil, Chemical)
b)2 + 2 Degree in Engineering (Electrical, Mechanical, Civil)
c)3 + 0 Degree in Engineering (Electrical, Mechanical)
d)Diploma in Engineering (Electrical, Mechanical, Chemical, Civil)
University of Queensland (UQ)
University of Southern Queensland (USQ)
University of Hertfordshire (UH)
HICT
•Headed by qualified and experience lecturers, 80% with master degree •High
standard programmes recognized by overseas universities •World class
engineering programs
i)UQ : Group of 8 in Australia
ii)THS world ranking 33 in 2008 (3rd in Australia)
iii)Complete diploma and degree fast, duration of study 4.5 – 5.0 years
i)USQ : Joint winner of Australian University in year 2000 – 2001 ii)Modern
and best in distance learning
iii)Complete diploma and degree fast, duration of study 4.5 years
ix)Complete 3 years study in HICT
i)Assessment : 50% exam, 50% coursework
ii)Complete study fast, duration of study 2.5 years
iii)Credit transfer into 2nd or 3rd year of engineering degree courses [UQ, USQ
and etc] iv)Flexible, students allowed to work before continuing to degree
courses
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IT Programmes :
a)Bachelor of Computer and Information Science
b)Diploma Computer Science
c)Diploma in Business Information Systems
University of South Australia (UniSA)
HICT
HICT
i)Highly-experienced lecturers
ii)Teaching materials prepared by UniSA lecturers
iii)Industry relevant curriculum (revised every 5 years)
iv)Examinations set and marked by UniSA
v)Accredited by LAN & Australia Computer Society
vi)Complete study in Malaysia
vii)Allowable to transfer to UniSA, Australia
i)40 – 60 ratio of assessment and examination
ii)Study review done every semester, students are performing below par will be
notified and required to undergo counseling iii)Curriculum development and
revision done every 5 years
iv)Course evaluation done every semester, including courses and lecturers
v)Fully accredited by LAN
i)Provides a pathway to UniSA degree or HICT internal business degrees or other
foreign degrees ii)Highly-experienced lecturers
iii)Newly upgraded computer labs
CoursesAwarding BodyUnit Selling Point
Professional Studies:
a)Diploma in Accountancy
b)Diploma in Business Studies
c)CAT
d)CIMA
e)ACCA
HICT
HICT
Information Security Policy
Table
of Contents
1.Information Security Policy (Word Count = approx. 1000)3 1.1Security:3
1.2Policy:3
1.3Information Security Policy and its importance:4
1.4Policies, Procedures, Practices, Guidelines5
1.5Example of good policy statement6
1.6Possible structure of information security policy documents7 1.7Strategies
and techniques to implement information security policies8 2.Developing the
Security Program(Word Count = approx. 500)9 3.Security Management Models and
Practices (Word Count = approx. 500)11 A.ISO/IEC Model11
B.NIST Security Model11
C.RFC 219611
D.COBIT11
E.COSO12
4.List of References:13
1.Information Security Policy
1.1Security:
Security has been a real issue for this century. Due to the new emerging
technology like RFID and wireless devices there have been various issues
regarding privacy and security of person and an enterprise. Security can be
understood as a condition to protect against unauthorized access. In terms of
IT, security can be categorized into application security, computing security,
data security, information security, and network security. Source: (Whitman
& Mattord 2007, p.5)
Even though all of these security fields need to be monitored in an enterprise,
for instance in this document we are concerned only with information security.
Information security is responsible for ensuring intrigrity, availability and
confidentiality of the enterprise’s valuable assets. For protecting valuable
assets one of the preventive measures is develop and implement policy within an
enterprise. The figure above shows the policy is essential in all the security
aspects. 1.2Policy:
“A policy is a deliberate plan of action to guide decisions and achieve
rational outcome(s)” (Wikipedia: policy, 2009). It is also known as a process
of making decisions with different priorities and choosing among them. Policies
can be written for policical, financial, management and administrative
conditions for achieving explicit goals (Wikipedia: policy, 2009). Information
security policy document contains the written statements for how an
organization intends to protect information.
1.3Information Security Policy and its importance:
Information flow within a business is a foundation of its competitive edge and
financial liquidity. Maintaining the competitive edge is also increasingly
often related to implementing information services, which act as a way to
improve information flow. However, it is important that these services be
implemented in such a fashion, that the intended profits do not become losses.
That is why information security policy is of such importance. Information
security policy must be implemented in such a fashion, that it enables business
continuity, minimizes risk, and maximizes business efficiency. Improper
development of information resources leads in consequence to data scattering
and decrease in security. In order to protect the business assets, businesses
develop information security policies as sets of regulations and procedures,
which are intended to help maintain information confidentiality, integrity and
availability. Company’s information security policy is a document which states
the company’s resources and assets which are continuously updated as technology
and business requirements changes. It is one of the most important information
security document. Enterprises implements information security policies for the
following five major consequences (Peltier 2002) : i.It can be benificial for gaining
competitive advantage;
ii.Improves customer and shareholder confidence;
iii.Decreases governmental interference;
iv.Compliance with legislative requirements; and
v.The risk of legal liability decreases
1.4Policies, Procedures, Practices, Guidelines
Source: (Whitman & Mattord 2007, p.112)
The figure above provides a general view for policies, standards, practices,
guidelines and procedure. More specifically, I.Policies are plan of action of
the governement, business, party or political sector for influencing and
determining decision, actions and other matters. II.Standards are the more
detailed statement for complying policy. III.Practices, Guidelines and
Procedures explains how the employees in an organisation comply with the
policy. For example a policy of an enterprise can be something like the
employees are not allowed to view inappropirate web sites in the workplace.
While implementing these policy, enterprise create standards that all the
inappropirate sites are bocked and list those sites that are considered
inappropirate.
1.5Example of good policy statement
A good policy statement must have the following properties (Whitman &
Mattord 2007) i.Policy must be developed with industry-accepted practices
ii.Distributed and disseminated using all appropirate methods iii.Reviewed or
read by all the employees
iv.Formally agreed to by act or assertion
v.Uniformly applied and enforced
USQ has also got the different policy statement for different purposes. For
information and communication technology USQ have got “USQ POLICY FOR ICT
INFORMATION MANAGEMENT AND SECURITY”. It can be found in the web site of USQ
i.e.,
http://www.usq.edu.au/resources/101usqpolicyforictinformationmanagementand.pdf.
Purpose:
To outline the direction, scope, and approach to the secure management of
information resources and services within the USQ ICT environment. It will
continue to be reviewed and evaluated in line with changes to business
processes and information security risks. Scope and Application:
This policy applies equally to all USQ employees, including permanent,
temporary, part-time and contract as well as students, consultants, or
third-party employees with access to the USQ ICT environment. Responsible
Officer: Chief Technology Officer CIS 8000 Global system strategy
Policy Type/Category: Governance and Management
The policy in USQ ensures
oInformation Security
oInternet and Email Use
oMonitoring and Privacy
oPenalties and Discipline
oPolicy Making and Review
1.6Possible structure of information security policy documents According to
Weise & Martin 2001, the structure of information security policy documents
contains the following sections: Statement of Purpose: Defines what is the
pupose of this policy or why is that needed. Scope: Tells about policy’s
applicability and area of coverage Policy Statement: Defines about what are the
specifics of policy? Responsibilities: Describes about who must do what?
Audience: Describes about to whom the policy is oriented?
Enforcement: Describes about who is charged with enforcement of policy and what
are the penalties for non-compliance Exception: Describes about condition under
which they apply
Communicating Policy: Describes about who is responsible and what the process
for disseminating policy is Review and Update Process: Under what condition is
the policy reviewed Implementing the Policy: Who is responsible and how policy
is accomplished Monitoring Compliance: How is monitoring accomplished?
1.7Strategies and techniques to implement information security policies When
the security policy is all drawn up, revised, updated and agreed upon, the
implementation process will follow. This is usually harder than the creation of
the policy itself, due the fact that at this stage you also need to coach and
educate your staff to behave in a "secure" manner, following each of
the core elements pointed in the formal security policy (Danchev 2003). Access
Control Lists: defines the access and privileges of every users to the
available resources. Security Awareness program can be developed for the staffs
to provide better understanding of security risk and potential security
problems (Danchev 2003). Configuration Rules: Specific configuration codes that
guides the execution of system what action to perform on each set of
information being processed. (Whitman & Mattord 2007)
Security involve risk assessment, analysis of threat and forming organizational
policy. Setting the policy and control is not enough, they even have to be
effective. To make them effective proper auditing and monitoring must be done
and apart from that need of company and business conditions changes from time
to time. It is very essential that the level of security are maintained
appropirately in an organisation.
2.Developing the Security Program
Prioritization of Security Functions for MetOcean Engineers Pty Ltd are done in
the following manner (Whitman & Mattord 2007) (1)Planning: Planning by the
executives need to have the priority because everything have to be done
according to plan. If proper planning is done then it would be easy to manage things
accordingly and hence assign security roles and responsibilities to each
member. (2)Policy: Policy is a standard that provides guidelines for the
members and staff of MetOcean Engineers Pty Ltd (MetOcean) to formulate
planning and operation. Policies need to be set for the overall information
security program and specific issues facing the consultancy. (3)Training:
Education and training should be provided to the employees regularly by
perfoming security awareness programs. (4)Legal assessment: It is important to
review and perform legal assessment which is compatible with policies and
procedures to ensure legal aspects. (5)Network Security Administration: Network
security are ensured by technologies like firewalls, routers, wireless devices
that are performed by the network administrator to protect network connectivity
between computers, to protect shared information storage resources, to protect
internet connectivity and e-mail capability (6)Vulnerability Assessment: Since
lack of formal security policies in the network, there may be several threats
to the information system of MetOcean Engineers Pty Ltd (MetOcean) that can
exploit weakness of system .So vulnerability assessment should be performed
that includes information assets and weak points. (7)Risk Assessment: After
identifying the vulnerabilities which exist in the system, it is necessary to
conduct risk assessment which is done either qualitatively or quantitatively to
estimate the potential risk that occurs in MetOcean Engineers Pty Ltd (MetOcean)
information system. (8)Risk Management: As soon as potential risks and their
impacts on MetOcean are identified, it is important to conduct various risk
controls to mitigate the potential risk so a proper risk management should be
done that make recommendations to general improvements in the information
security posture. (9)Measurement: After implementing various control measures
in the existing system, it is necessary to calculate the residual risks and
their impact to the academy. (10)Centralized authentication: It is necessary to
centralize the authentication mechanism and granting privileges to access the
networks in order to resolve different issues related with network system.
(11)System Security Administration: Since monitoring and controlling of
MetOcean Engineers Pty Ltd (MetOcean) has been achieved by risk management and
assessment so configuration of system should be done by system administration.
(12)Compliance: Since identified vulnerabilities are repaired by system
administrator and network administrator, compliance should be done to ensure
the performance of job done. (13)System testing: Software vulnerabilities are
evaluated through installation of patches and system testing are done to assure
compliance and system performance which is performed as a part of risk
management and incident response. (14)Incident Response: MetOcean Engineers Pty
Ltd (MetOcean) should have incident response plan and disaster recovery plan to
protect sensitive and valuable information assets from unwanted and undesirable
event that may occur for their business continuity.
3.Security Management Models and Practices
A security model is a generic blueprint offered by a service organisation
(Whitman & Mattord 2007). Some of the security management models and practices
are listed as follows:
A.ISO/IEC Model
It is an abbreviation for International Organisation for Standarization (ISO)
and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). It is a propieitary
document, anybody who want to adopt it needs to purchase the license. It is
based on British standard Information Technology – Code of Practice for
Information Security Management. It contains the recommended practices of
control objectives and control in security policy, information security
organisation, asset management, human resource security, physical and
environmental security, communication and operation management, access control
and complaince. Apart from that it lacks justification for code of practices,
the necessary measurement of technical standards. Not useful as any other
methods Not a complete framework and requires license to adopt.
B.NIST Security Model
Advantages
oIt does not require cost.
oReviewed broadly by the government and the industry professionals oIt have got
various publication, which can be the best reference and guide for routine
mangement of information security. Disadvantages
oIt is a generalized model which makes it difficult to customize in order to
meet the orgnaisational need. oIt is developed by US so it is may not be compatible
to the organisations that are outside US.
C.RFC 2196
RFC 2196 is created by Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Charcteristics
of RFC 2196:
Provides functional discussion of security issues and overview of
developement and implementation of security including five basic areas. It
covers security policies, security technical architecture, secrity services and
security incident handling. One of the drawback of RFC 2196 is that the
organisations require license to purchase the standards which results the model
to be costly.
D.COBIT
Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (COBIT) provides
advice about the implementation of security. Advantages
oIt is used as a planning tool for information security as well as control
models oIt is an IT governance framework and supporting toolset that allows
managers to bridge the gap between control requirements, technical issues and
business risks oIt also helps the organization to increase the value attained
form IT, and enables alignment. Disadvantages
oWork done in earlier version of COBIT is not validated
oA bit expensive to purchase standards
E.COSO
Committee if Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) is a US
private sector based model. It is process, effected by an entity;s board of
directors, management and other personnesl, designed to provide reasonable
assurance regarding the achievet of the objectives in effectiveness and
efficiency of oerations; reliability of financial reporting; and complaince
with applicable laws and regulations (Whitman & Mattord 2007). Five
comonents of COSO are:
i.Control Environment
ii.Risk Assesment
iii.Control Activities
iv.Information and communication
v.Monitoring
Charcteristics of COSO
Major objective is to identify the factors that cause fraudulent financial
reporting and to make recommendations to reduce its incidence Establishes a
common definition of internal controls, standards and criteria against which
organizations can access their control systems A framework to describe and
analyse those internal control systems which are on IT systems that incorporate
information security controls It only helps those organizations that are
comply with critical regulations
4.List of References:
Danchev, D 2003, “Building and Implementing a Successful Information Security
Policy”, WindowSecurity.com, viewed on 15th January 2009,
Peltier, 2002, “Information security Policies, Procedures, and Standards”
RPS MetOcean, 2008 "Company Profile", viewed on 12 December 2008,
Whitman, ME & Mattord, HJ 2007, “Management of information security”, 2nd
edn, Thomson Course Technology, Boston, Massachusetts
Weise, J, and Martin, CR, 2001, “Data Security Policy – Structure and
Guidelines”, viewed on 19 Janurary 2009,
Wikipedia: Policy, updated 10th January 2009, viewed on 20th January 2009, <
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Policy>
Zara Audit
2012
Zara Marketing Audit
MBA-USQ 11: MKT5000
University of Applied Sciences Zurich (HWZ) Switzerland
Supervised by: Prof. Richard Beswick
23.08.2012
MBA-USQ 11: MKT5000
Written Assignment I: Zara Marketing Audit, Anja Anastasja Keller, U1028905
Executive Summary
Zara is a publicly listed company and belongs to the Inditex Group, founded by
Amancio Ortega in 1975 in Spain. Zara always continues to bring excitement to
fashion and fulfils customer demand. Currently, Zara has 1,600 stores in 77
countries and continues to force its logistics system to complete stock
rotation every 15 days. Zara needs only 14 days to develop a new product and
delivery it to stores (industry average: six-month) and launches around 10’000
new designs each year. Furthermore, Zara disagreed to the industrial trend
towards transferring fast fashion production to low-cost countries and has the
most unusual strategy of zero advertising; the company preferred to invest a
percentage of revenues in opening new stores instead. Zara is moving forward
with its successful entry into the digital world and continues to expand and
manage its online presence: over a million daily visits on web site and more
than 14 million Facebook fans. The online expanding strategy in international
key markets as the U.S. is one of the hot topics and in the face of H&M’s
online arrival scheduled for 2012, and strengthening its presence in Asia,
North America, Australia and South Africa.
The aim of this report will analyse the online strategy and particularly the
online-shopping service.
Current Market Situation
Positioning and economic performance
The positioning of Zara brand in a competitive market aims diversification from
the other competitors as H & M and GAP. Regarding Alexa Traffic Rank,
Zara.com present (i) 1,440 Global Rank, (ii) 341 Rank in Spain and (iii) 16,122
Sites Linking in. Under Alexa ‘Number of First Page Keywords for zara.com in
Google’ Figures 2) Appendix III) its illustrate the last 12 months development,
especially May and June 2012 dropped significantly up nearly 50% compare the
April 2012.
The sales have increased significantly by 10% reaching 13,793 million euros and
the increase in the turnover and the improvement in operating efficiency have
made it possible to raise EBITDA by 10%, up to 3,258 million euros. Thus, the
profitability of the Group continued to improve: the net profit raided by 12%
and reached 1,932 million euros.
Target Market
Zara’s target customers are paying attention in high trends and want to have
the latest fashion tends but cannot afford dresses from the haute couture
boutiques. In consideration of the market, Zara provides the customers with a
turnover period of 4 and 5 weeks for its “New Arrivals” collections. Customer
Profiles
In order of Alexa audience report on Zara.com on Figures 1) Appendix III) it
shows the equal the main users age from 18-34, in addition, mostly female and
half of them have children. The main visitors by countries of Zara.com on
Figures 3) Appendix III) are from Spain (11.2%), United States (10.6%), United
Kingdom (8.1%), France (7.7%), Germany (6.6%), China (4.3%), Italy (4.3%),
Poland (3.3%) and Japan (3.2%), which demonstrates a balanced demographical mix
of customers around the world.
Zara Marketing Mix
Product
Zara manufactures and sells products such as clothes, shoes, cosmetics and
accessories for men, children and woman. Furthermore, Zara extended its
collection with additional sizes (petit, tall). Price
Zara provides for people with lower income so its prices are very reasonable
that everybody can afford that. Cost effectivity influences also the supply
chain management, which requires a fast decision making process.
MBA-USQ 11: MKT5000
Written Assignment I: Zara Marketing Audit, Anja Anastasja Keller, U1028905
Place
Zara is present in about 30 countries at private locations. There are 600
commercial stores and Zara is selling its service trough out the world. High
frequency in the flagship stores with high valuable interior designs; new
openings in prestige locations (Pitt Street, Sydney; Burke Street, Melbourne;
Taipei 101 building; Taiwan and in EU: Rathenauplatz, Frankfurt; George Street
London, Van Baerlestraat, Amsterdam) are Zara’s target strategy.
Promotion
Zara focuses less on advertisement based marketing, but more on internet online
marketing opportunities as ECommerce strategy, social media and online shops.
From the original focus on central European market, Zara expended its
multi-channel strategy of stores and expansion in new markets such as Japan and
the United States and extended online sales to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden,
Monaco and Switzerland.
Competitors Analysis
Based on the Alexa Daily Traffic Rank Trend on Figures 1) Appendix IV) gap.com,
currently rank circa (c.r.c.) 900, is obviously the leader under the top ranked
websites worldwide, followed by hm.com c.r.c. 1400 and zara.com c.r.c. 1600.
Regarding on Alexa Daily Reach (percent) on Figures 2) Appendix IV) the gap
between gap.com and zara.com recued significantly and the estimated percentage
of global internet users who visit zara.com (0.06%) and hm.com (0.07%) are
nearly on the same level, and correspondents with Figures 3) Appendix IV) the
estimated percentage of global pageviews.
A very interesting development on Figures 4) Appendix IV) shows the estimated
daily time spent on the site (mm:ss). H&M daily time dropped down middle of
July to 4:00 and jumped up middle of August to 8:00, it raises the question,
what happened that users are spending 100% more time on H&M page? Compared
to Zara, the users daily time of the last three months 6:37 as Gap users. The
audience under the advanced demographics for Zara and its competitors shows
under Figure 5) Appendix IV) a similar customer structure, age between 18-34;
education between graduated school and some collage; dominated by females;
browsing location by zara.com and hm.com school / work, by guess.com school and
tally-weijl.com home; yearly income by zara.com and hm.com up to $60K,
guess.com up to $100K+ and tallyweijl.com up to $30K.
Online-Shopping Service
Internal Investigation
Zara Online-Shops presents a moderate choice of fashion for women, mean and
kids. The user can select his search criteria by quality, characteristics,
colour, size and prize. Nevertheless under Figure 1) Appendix V) even though
the functionality is given, the presentation of the collection does not
correspond with the highfashion flagship stores of Zara, where Zara impresses
by creative interior design and prestige location. Furthermore, by selecting a
specific product, the detailed view on Figure 2) Appendix V) does not provide
an outfit or accessories compensation.
The ordering process on Figure 3) Appendix V) does not show the delivery costs
or time, only by adding details such as address, the order processes to the
shipping stage on Figure 4) Appendix V), where you can select the shipping
method. In consideration of an express delivery within 2-3 working days, the
costs are 19 USD (17.95 CHF). It appears not to be a part of Zara
cost-leadership strategy and by standard delivery the costs are still 8 USD
(7.95 CHF) and requires 4-6 working days for delivery. In addition, the return
policy under Figure 5) Appendix V) does not reflect the terms of condition
easily and clear.
MBA-USQ 11: MKT5000
Written Assignment I: Zara Marketing Audit, Anja Anastasja Keller, U1028905
Competitor Comparison
H&M Online-Shop presents a multifunctional choice of fashion for women,
mean and kids. The user can select his search criteria by quality,
characteristics, colour, size and prize, furthermore H&M provide a dress
room function under Figure 6) Appendix V) where you can create your own outfit
and by selecting the model under figure 7) Appendix V). H&M clearly represents
the ethical fairness of customers around the world. Beside of this H&M
focuses close attention on details (coat open / close; colour selection) by
additional outfit presentation Figure 8) Appendix V). The User can even create
out of an autumn a winter outfit or adding additional articles such as
sunglass. The item list which provides a clear overview of the total costs is
present at all time on the left side of the page. Under Figure 10) - 16)
Appendix V), it’s all about excitement and styles. Current campaigns can be
easily tried in the dress room, moreover the background can be changed by fancy
colours, last but not least, the shipment costs of USD 6 (GBP 3.90) and the
delivery time of 4-6 working days provide a customer-friendly service.
GAP Online-Shop presents a multifunctional choice of fashion for women, mean,
kids, maternity, babies and more, Figure 17), 21), 22), 23) and 24) Appendix
V). The user can expend his search criteria by additional functions. GAP
provides an outfit search under Figures 18), 19) Appendix V), which can be
easily selected for purchase, Figure 20) Appendix V), compared to H&M where
it’s only a dress room and not a purchase sector. The shipment costs of USD 7
and the delivery time of 2-5 working days appear customer-friendly as well,
furthermore, by selecting 7-8 working days there would be no extra charge for
delivery and by express delivery of only one working day the costs of USD 22
are acceptable. Zalando Online-Shop presents as well a multifunctional choice
and outfit selection for women, mean, kids, babies and more, Figure 25), 26),
and 27) Appendix V). There are no shipment costs under Figure 28) Appendix V),
regardless of the purchase volume. For returned goods no shipment costs are
charged. Compared with the other competitors a standard delivery time by
Zalando of only one working day can be rated as first-class customer service.
PEST Analysis
Political Analysis
Zara as one of the best retail brands worldwide has various interactions with
governmental policy for intervention in the economy and legal aspects in
decision making processes. There are restrictions in different countries, which
have to be considered before forcing a market entry. In addition the trade
policy requires specific adjustments as for example in China there is a
currency policy which causes imports to the countries to be significantly above
market price or India who requires productions in the country. Economic
Analysis
Global growth increased to 3.6 percent in the first quarter of 2012 and Global trade
rebounds in parallels with industrial production in the first quarter 2012,
which, in turn, benefited trade-oriented economies, notably Germany and those
in Asia. (World Economic Outlook Update, July 2012) Zara’s expansion strategy
in Asia correspond with the GDP accumulated growth Figure 2) Appendix I),
however Zara should be aware of GST, Duties and Tariffs. They are based on the
classification code of the goods, valuation and country of origin. The
worldwide distribution audience channel under Figure 1), Appendix I) present a
% composition of regional visitors to selected retail and auction sites. Amazon
Sites attracted 35.4% of its audience from North America, while Europe
contributed 31.8% of visitors and Asia Pacific accounted for 24.1%, on contrary
where Wal-Mart attracted 83.4% of its audience from North America and with only
contributed 8.9% from Europe and Otto Gruppe attracted 92.3% of its audience
from Europe.
MBA-USQ 11: MKT5000
Written Assignment I: Zara Marketing Audit, Anja Anastasja Keller, U1028905
Social Analysis
Regarding the social media trend development it’s a must for Zara to establish
a social media relationship to satisfy customer’s demands due to change in
generation choices. It’s one of Zara’s strength to provide direct social
contact to the customers as per Newsletter, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest,
Youtube, Flickr, Web mobile or a customer account. Furthermore, Zara social
engagement for social-human rights and social-society dimension are performance
indicator in the INDITEX annual report. Technological Analysis
Zara’s IT strategy has to consider the complexity and requirements regarding of
the organic growth strategy to reduce costs and improve quality. The consumers
can benefit from these developments as well as the organisation itself by
providing the efficient source of technology service. Furthermore, Zara should
establish an E-Commerce strategy to expand not only on existing markets,
moreover on new markets with online shopping opportunities.
SWOT Analysis
The SWOT details analysis on Figure 3) Appendix I) present on the TOWS analysis
on Table 1) the key internal strengths, weaknesses and the key external
opportunities and threats.
TOWS Analysis
1) Table of TOWS Analysis of Zara
MBA-USQ 11: MKT5000
Written Assignment I: Zara Marketing Audit, Anja Anastasja Keller, U1028905
Conclusion of the audit
Even tough Zara is focussing on new opening flagship stores at prestige
locations around the world and providing high-fashionable new products every
4-5 weeks Zara should consider that there are potential new customers worldwide
who do not visit Zara locally, because of time-efficiency Zara is not the first
choice (other priorities in free time as local shopping), location wise not
possible (too fare away from a local store) or because organizational wise to
complicate, like a young mother, who has to handle her career, children and
family in the same time.
Even though Zara’s online shops feature all major functions it does not
correspond with Zara’s local presentation (prestige image), even more a bit
disappointing, especially compared with H&M’s creative way to convey
fashion online with the dress room function, moreover, by saving outfits or
share on facebook, twitter, send a link or e-mail.
Recommendation objectives and proposed strategy
Due to the fact that of online expenditure in sales not only increases the
economical profit, it boosts the online ranking worldwide and creates an added
value on the brand. It’s highly recommended to build a customer friendly online
shopping opportunity based on Appendix II) Customer Experience. By taking into
account of customer friendly shop presentation among creative features, fair
delivery condition with an easy return process.
Reference
ï‚·
Alexa - The Web Information Company (online analysis)
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/zara.com
ï‚·
Annual Report 2011 Inditex
http://www.inditex.com/en/shareholders_and_investors/investor_relations/annual_reports
ï‚·
Best Retail Brands 2012 - http://www.interbrand.com/en/BestRetailBrands/2012-Best-RetailBrands.aspx
ï‚·
Ecommerce (2010). Web strategist and Project Manager. Retrieved May, 10, from
http://www.mariosalexandrou.com/definition/ecommerce.asp
ï‚·
Global Audience Analysis for Top Retail Sites
http://www.comscoredatamine.com/2011/08/global-audience-analysis-for-top-retail-sites/
ï‚·
Harward Business School 2011, Customer Loyalty Programs That Work, viewed 13
August 2012, http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6733.html
ï‚·
PESTEL Analysis of the macro-environment. (2010). Foundation of Economics –
Business Strategy. Retrieved May 5, from
http://www.oup.com/uk/orc/bin/9780199296378/01student/additional/page_12.htm
ï‚·
Online Shopping Customer Experience Study
http://www.comscore.com/ger/Press_Events/Presentations_Whitepapers/2012/Online_Shopping_Cust
omer_Experience_Study
ï‚·
SWOT Analyasis. (2010). Strategic Management – Swot Analysis. Retrieved May 20,
from http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/swot/
ï‚·
Wikipedia website Zara http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zara_%28retailer%29
ï‚·
Wikipedia list of countries by real GDP growth rate
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_real_GDP_growth_rate
ï‚·
World Economic Outlook Update June 2012
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2012/update/02/index.htm
ï‚·
Zara website http://www.zara.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/home/ch/de
MBA-USQ 11: MKT5000
Written Assignment I: Zara Marketing Audit, Anja Anastasja Keller, U1028905
Appendix I)
MBA-USQ 11: MKT5000
Written Assignment I: Zara Marketing Audit, Anja Anastasja Keller, U1028905
Appendix I) Global Audience in Online Shopping
Comscoredatamine, August 2012. (Report outline)
Global Audience Analysis for Top Retail Sites
A recent comScore report analyzed some of the largest global retail and auction
sites with a specific look at how these sites are penetrating various
geographic regions. Among destinations included in the study, Amazon Sites and
Apple.com Worldwide Sites showed more globally distributed audiences compared
to most other brands in the study. Amazon Sites attracted 35.4% of its audience
from North America, while Europe contributed 31.8% of visitors and Asia Pacific
accounted for 24.1%. Similarly, Apple.com Worldwide Sites attracted 32.0% of
its visitors from North America, while Europe contributed 29.6% of visitors and
Asia Pacific accounted for 24.9%. On the other hand, China’s Alibaba.com
Corporation (85.7% and Japan’s Rakuten, Inc. (72.7%) reach sourced the vast
majority of their traffic from the Asia Pacific region. Of the 10 selected
sites, MercadoLibre showed the strongest concentration of visitors from a
single region with 93.3% of its audience from Latin America, where it ranked as
the top retail player in the region. For the full study, please visit the
comScore website.
Figures 1) Appendix I)
MBA-USQ 11: MKT5000
Written Assignment I: Zara Marketing Audit, Anja Anastasja Keller, U1028905
Global GBP accumulated 1990-1998, 1990-2006
Figures 2) Appendix I)
Zara SWOT Analysis
Figures 3) Appendix I)
MBA-USQ 11: MKT5000
Written Assignment I: Zara Marketing Audit, Anja Anastasja Keller, U1028905
Appendix II)
MBA-USQ 11: MKT5000
Written Assignment I: Zara Marketing Audit, Anja Anastasja Keller, U1028905
Appendix II) Customer Experience in Online Shopping
comSCORE, May 2012. (Report outline)
Introducing the Online Shopping Customer Experience Study
The Online Shopping Customer Experience Study provides insights into consumers’
online shopping behaviors and preferences. Other online shopping surveys have
focused on purchase or web usability, but this particular survey bridges that
gap with a view of perceptions on customer experience from pre-purchase through
post-delivery. This study also provides a clear picture of which shipping and
post-purchase services enhance customer experience. Topics included are:
ïƒ¼ï€ What are the most/least important aspects of past online shopping
experiences? ïƒ¼ï€ What leads a site user to return to or recommend a
site? ïƒ¼ï€ What is important to consumers during the check-out process?
ïƒ¼ï€ What shipping services and options do consumers find most valuable?
ïƒ¼ï€ How important is tracking and what delivery services are preferred?
ïƒ¼ï€ What are consumers’ returns experiences and what aspects are
important in a returns process? ïƒ¼ï€ How do all of the services offered
during and after the online purchasing experience impact the overall impression
of that online retailer?
The study analyzes the data from a comScore survey of more than 3,100 U.S.
online shoppers conducted in February 2012. All shoppers surveyed had to meet
the criteria of making at least two online purchases in a typical 3-month
period. Additionally, an online focus group was held on January 12, 2012.
Participants met in a virtual online forum where they were asked about a series
of topics related to online shopping and logistics, including shipping and
returns. This forum allowed participants to respond to online discussion
questions as well as other participants’ comments throughout the course of the
focus group. This report will provide retailers with the necessary insights
into what steps they must take to satisfy their customers, thereby increasing
customer loyalty as well as the lifetime value of customers. Key Findings
While online shoppers are generally very satisfied, there is room to improve
their satisfaction related to shipping and returns. While free shipping is a
great motivator, drawing shoppers back to sites to make repeat purchases and
causing shoppers to recommend an online retailer, consumers are willing to pay
a nominal fee for getting their product faster. When comparison shopping,
consumers take product price and shipping charges almost equally into
consideration.
There are several other things that retailers can do to improve the experience
for their online shoppers. The first is to communicate the expected delivery
date of the order; customers are willing to wait for their orders but want to
know just how long that might be. Timely arrival of shipments encourages
shoppers to recommend an online retailer. Consumers also like having tracking
updates and delivery notifications to understand when their package is
arriving. Online shoppers want flexibility in their shipping, particularly the
ability to give special delivery instructions or schedule a delivery time or
select an alternate delivery location. Online shoppers that have made returns
prefer to have a preprinted return label in their original package or access to
an easy-to-print label. Having to pay for return shipping negatively impacts
the overall returns experience. A lenient and clear returns policy is likely to
lead to recommendations and repeat business from online shoppers, while
reducing shopping cart abandonment.
MBA-USQ 11: MKT5000
Written Assignment I: Zara Marketing Audit, Anja Anastasja Keller, U1028905
Online Shopping Industry Snapshot
Total U.S. Internet Population –
Purchasers of Shippable Goods
About 75 million people, or one-third of the total Internet
population, buy goods online to be shipped to them over
the course of a quarter. Of those, about one-third make 1
transaction and half make 1-2 transactions. About a quarter
make 3-5 purchases, and the other quarter make 6 or more.
Percentage of Total e-Commerce Dollars Spent via
Mobile or Tablet Device
Figures 1) Appendix II)
Mobile and tablet e-commerce has exploded in the
past year. At the end of 2010, mobile e-commerce was
3% of total e-commerce. Just a year later, mobile ecommerce was 9% of
e-commerce. Retailers must move quickly to adopt these new platforms to meet
the evolving expectations of savvy consumers.
Figures 2) Appendix II)
Online Shopping Experience and Satisfaction
Consumer satisfaction with online shopping overall is high, at 86%. Online
shoppers are most satisfied with ease of check-out (83%), variety of
brands/products (82%), and online tracking ability (79%). Online shoppers are
least satisfied with flexibility of shipping, including flexibility to choose
delivery date (58%) and re-route packages (57%), and the ease of making returns
and exchanges (65%). In addition to ease of making returns and exchanges, there
is also
CIS 3008 information technology service management
Figures 3) Appendix II)
MBA-USQ 11: MKT5000
Written Assignment I: Zara Marketing Audit, Anja Anastasja Keller, U1028905
Quadrant Analysis
Figures 4) Appendix II)
Aspects Shoppers Want to See Improved by Retailer
Figures 5) Appendix II)
Discounts/Specials That Bring Customers Back to Retailer
Figures 6) Appendix II)
MBA-USQ 11: MKT5000
Written Assignment I: Zara Marketing Audit, Anja Anastasja Keller, U1028905
Factors Taken into Consideration
When Comparison Shopping
Figures 7) Appendix II)
Recommendation of Online Retailers – Top 4 Factors –
Figures 8) Appendix II)
Reasons for Abandoning Shopping Cart
Figures 9) Appendix II)
MBA-USQ 11: MKT5000
Written Assignment I: Zara Marketing Audit, Anja Anastasja Keller, U1028905
Important Information/Options at Check-out
Figures 10) Appendix II)
Days Willing to Wait for Most Purchases
Figures 11) Appendix II)
Estimated Delivery Time Provided
(of those who abandoned their cart due to delivery date)
Figures 12) Appendix II)
MBA-USQ 11: MKT5000
Written Assignment I: Zara Marketing Audit, Anja Anastasja Keller, U1028905
Shipping Options Expected
Most Important Shipment Tracking Service
Figures 13) Appendix II)
Figures 14) Appendix II)
Shipping Option Actually Chosen Most
"Giving me tracking information for my packages is
an important service every retailer should offer"
Figures 15) Appendix II)
Figures 16) Appendix II)
Most Convenient Services While Waiting for Delivery
Average # of Chips Allocated out of 100
Figures 17) Appendix II)
MBA-USQ 11: MKT5000
Written Assignment I: Zara Marketing Audit, Anja Anastasja Keller, U1028905
Factors Enhancing Purchasing Experience for Valuable/Important Purchases
Average # of Chips Allocated out of 100
Figures 18) Appendix II)
Most Preferred Flexible Shipping Service
– Ranked #1 or #2 –
Figures 19) Appendix II)
Look for an Online Retailer's Return Policy ...
Figures 20) Appendix II)
MBA-USQ 11: MKT5000
Written Assignment I: Zara Marketing Audit, Anja Anastasja Keller, U1028905
If an Online Retailer Offers a Lenient, Easy-toUnderstand Returns Policy, I
Will …
Elements of the Best Returns Experience
Figures 21) Appendix II)
Figures 22) Appendix II)
Issues Faced in Previous Returns Experience
Figures 23) Appendix II)
Conclusions
While free and discounted shipping is a big story, there is more to online
shopping and the customer experience. In fact, many shoppers are willing to pay
a nominal fee to receive the product faster if given the option. Shipping and
delivery timing is important during check-out – it’s all about communication!
To reduce shopping cart abandonment, retailers should show the shipping costs,
present how much more should be purchased to get free shipping, and give
consumers the option of shipping time frames. Customers are willing to wait for
their packages, but need to know what is happening – they want estimated
delivery time clearly stated and they want e-mail or text alerts about their
delivery. Also important to the customer is the feeling of control. Options
such as “special delivery instructions,” the ability to schedule a late
delivery, or having a delivery window give the consumers the control they need
to better their shipping experience.
Finally, good experiences with returning items leads to repeat customers and
recommendations for the retailer. Good returns experiences are marked by ease
for the consumer, while the bad experiences highlight hassles and the extra
cost required.
MBA-USQ 11: MKT5000
Written Assignment I: Zara Marketing Audit, Anja Anastasja Keller, U1028905
Appendix III)
MBA-USQ 11: MKT5000
Written Assignment I: Zara Marketing Audit, Anja Anastasja Keller, U1028905
Appendix III) Customer Analytical Research of Zara.com
Alexa, August 2012. (online research outline)
Figures 1) Appendix III)
Figures 2) Appendix III)
MBA-USQ 11: MKT5000
Written Assignment I: Zara Marketing Audit, Anja Anastasja Keller, U1028905
Figures 3) Appendix III)
MBA-USQ 11: MKT5000
Written Assignment I: Zara Marketing Audit, Anja Anastasja Keller, U1028905
Appendix IV)
MBA-USQ 11: MKT5000
Written Assignment I: Zara Marketing Audit, Anja Anastasja Keller, U1028905
Appendix IV) Competitors Analytical Research of Zara.com
Alexa, August 2012. (online research outline)
Figures 1) Appendix IV) :
Figures 2) Appendix IV) :
Figures 3) Appendix IV) :
Figures 4) Appendix IV) :
MBA-USQ 11: MKT5000
Written Assignment I: Zara Marketing Audit, Anja Anastasja Keller, U1028905
Advanced Demographics for zara.com - Audience breakdown by category. Figures 5)
Appendix IV) :
MBA-USQ 11: MKT5000
Written Assignment I: Zara Marketing Audit, Anja Anastasja Keller, U1028905
Appendix V)
MBA-USQ 11: MKT5000
Written Assignment I: Zara Marketing Audit, Anja Anastasja Keller, U1028905
Appendix V) Zara Online-Shop Comparison
Zara Online-Shop, August 2012. (outfit research)
Figures 1) Appendix V)
Figures 3) Appendix V
Figures 5) Appendix V
Figures 2) Appendix V)
Figures 4) Appendix V
MBA-USQ 11: MKT5000
Written Assignment I: Zara Marketing Audit, Anja Anastasja Keller, U1028905
H&M Online-Shop, August 2012. (outfit research)
Figures 6) Appendix V
Figures 7) Appendix V
Figures 8) Appendix V
Figures 9) Appendix V
MBA-USQ 11: MKT5000
Written Assignment I: Zara Marketing Audit, Anja Anastasja Keller, U1028905
Figures 10) Appendix V
Figures 13) Appendix V
Figures 15) Appendix V
Figures 11) Appendix V
Figures 12) Appendix V
Figures 14) Appendix V
Figures 16) Appendix V
MBA-USQ 11: MKT5000
Written Assignment I: Zara Marketing Audit, Anja Anastasja Keller, U1028905
GAP Online-Shop, August 2012. (outfit research)
Figures 17) Appendix V
Figures 19) Appendix V
Figures 21) Appendix V
Figures 23) Appendix V
Figures 18) Appendix V
Figures 20) Appendix V
Figures 22) Appendix V
Figures 24) Appendix V
MBA-USQ 11: MKT5000
Written Assignment I: Zara Marketing Audit, Anja Anastasja Keller, U1028905
ZALANDO Online-Shop, August 2012. (outfit research)
Figures 25) Appendix V
Figures 26) Appendix V
Figures 28) Appendix V
Figures 27) Appendix V
A Study on Student and Staff
Awareness, Acceptance and Usage of E-Books at Two Queensland Universities
A
STUDY ON STUDENT AND STAFF AWARENESS, ACCEPTANCE AND USAGE OF E-BOOKS AT TWO
QUEENSLAND UNIVERSITIES
Martin Borchert, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia Alison Hunter,
University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Australia Debby Macdonald,
Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia Clare Tittel, University of Southern
Queensland, Toowoomba, Australia
Page 1
Abstract Aims Previous research on e-books has generally focused on business
models and content delivery. This investigation, sponsored by the Queensland
University Librarians Office of Cooperation (QULOC) aims to verify the
quantitative and qualitative aspects of client awareness (or non-awareness),
acceptance (or nonacceptance), usage levels (or non-use) and usage patterns of
electronic books amongst students and staff at selected local universities.
Results will inform library marketing, information literacy and collection
development priorities. Methods Griffith University and University of Southern
Queensland developed and made available online surveys via the institutions’
library web sites and catalogues. Print versions of the survey were also
distributed in libraries. Various e-book publishers were approached to provide
deep log usage statistics. Responses to multiple choice and textual responses
were quantitatively and qualitatively analysed. Results Over 2,200 students and
staff responded and survey responses indicated a high level of awareness of
ebooks amongst both staff and students, but relatively low usage, with the
library catalogue being the major access point. Both students and staff
generally liked ebooks and many had used ebooks in their subject area, but not
within the context of resources for courses. Most preferred the library to
purchase books in both print and electronic format with 24x7 access and ebook
database searching being the most popular reasons for liking ebooks, while
difficulty in reading from the screen for extended periods of time was the main
reason for disliking ebooks. Few would read an entire ebook on the screen.
Printing before reading was common. Usage log statistics from sample publishers
were used to verify findings. Conclusion Results are discussed in the context
of the available literature. Responses can be used in collection development to
ensure ebooks are appropriately considered within collection development
strategies and that ebooks are well received and used by clients.
Page 2
1. Introduction After a lengthy and perhaps cautious start, publishers are
bringing a greater number of electronic books (ebooks) to the information
market via an ever-widening range of business and technical models. University
libraries in Australia have been purchasing ebooks for a considerable time and
are now purchasing more ebooks than ever before. The Information Resources and
Access Working Party of Queensland University Libraries Office of Cooperation
(QULOC, 2008) in 2007 discussed the need for further information to inform
collection development and acquisition of ebooks to ensure they meet clients’
needs. Working party members concluded that such information would be important
before their institutions invested greater funds in the purchase of ebooks. Few
existing studies, all non-Australian, had been found to focus on end-user
perceptions of ebooks which could inform collection development planning
activities. In response to this, QULOC funded a small local study on user
perceptions of ebooks. Two Queensland universities undertook the study: •
Griffith University (Griffith) which is a large multi-campus metropolitan
university in Brisbane and the Gold Coast with about 30,000 full time
equivalent (fte) students/staff and University of Southern Queensland (USQ), a
regional multi-campus university based in Toowoomba with about 13,000 fte
students/staff and a high percentage of students enrolled in the off-campus
mode.
•
Both university libraries have been making ebook services available in
significant numbers and from multiple sources for about 5 years. 2. Aims of the
survey The survey aimed to verify quantitative and qualitative aspects of
client awareness (or non-awareness), acceptance (or non-acceptance), usage levels
(or non-usage) and usage patterns of electronic books amongst students and
staff at the two Queensland universities. The results of the survey will be
used to plan resource development policies and funding allocations for the
purchase of ebooks which reflect the requirements and expectations of the
respective university communities. Information gained will be shared amongst
QULOC institutions and with the broader library community. 3. Literature Review
In early 2007 when the ideas for this project were being developed, there
already existed a large number of studies on ebooks, but these tended to focus
on the content, technology platforms, business models and drivers, how many and
what ebooks particular libraries had purchased, and to a lesser extent, what
publisher-
Page 3
derived usage statistics had been recorded. Relatively few studies had focused
on the customer side of awareness, acceptance or reasons for use of ebooks. Chu
(2003) was one of the first to seek feedback from library users on ebooks and
surveyed just 27 non-randomly selected library science students in 2002. Only
one third of these students had ever used ebooks. Reasons for using ebooks
included availability around the clock and searchability. The main reasons for
not using ebooks included “lack of thought or exposure” to ebooks, need for
special hardware, and difficulty in reading on a screen. Levin-Clark (2006)
conducted a survey of library users at the University of Denver’s Penrose
Library to determine their degree of awareness of ebooks, how and why they used
them, and their level of satisfaction. It was found that half of library users
used ebooks, albeit only occasionally, and liked the online convenience and
searchability, but preferred to read only small portions of ebooks. An increasing
number of studies then became available from 2007. Walton (2007) found that at
Southwest Baptist University, clients spoke of a perceived increase in learning
difficulty when using ebooks. Ebooks were less used than were print books,
either to conduct research or study from textbooks, or for leisure reading.
Advantages of ebooks included the digital format, portability, searchability
and scalability while disadvantages included ebooks being hard on the eyes and
not easy to read. The use of ebooks was found not yet to be mainstreamed and to
be supplemental to print books. Connoway (2007) in an Academic Research
Libraries study of only 20 respondents found that 25% preferred to read online,
45% would buy an ebook, 70% would lease an ebook and 75% claim to read ebooks
online, while 28% would read between 4 pages and a chapter online. JISC (2007)
commenced the National eBooks Observatory Project to assess impacts, observe
behaviours and develop new models to stimulate the ebooks market by licensing a
collection of ebooks. It aimed to achieve a high participation rate by making
them freely available over a range of technology platforms, in order for
publishers’ deep log statistics and observational analysis to be used. A report
of findings from the first, benchmark user survey was published in 2008 and
found student dissatisfaction with the low availability of print textbooks in
the library to be a primary motivator for using ebooks. Some 60% of students
were already using ebooks, although fewer than 5% of students had purchased
their own copy. Interestingly, over 50% of ebook users of all ages reported
that they read from the screen; but 35% of readers spent less than 10 minutes
reading on screen in a session. Some 62% of respondents said they had used ebooks.
Carlock and Perry (2007) held a focus group of only 6 participants at Arizona
State University and found that ebook users had generally unsatisfactory
experiences with ebooks, citing unreliability, lack of usability, and the need
for a steep learning curve to use multiple interfaces. eBrary, a major ebook
publisher, ran the Global eBook Survey in 2008, with respondents from over
2,100 colleges and universities worldwide. Some of the results more pertinent
to this study include: over half of the respondents described their awareness
of electronic library resources as good or excellent; half of the Page 4
respondents knew their library had ebooks; but more than half had never used
them, primarily because they don’t know where to find them, or they preferred
to read print books. While Google was the most popular online resource, print
books were considered the most trust-worthy for research and class assignments.
A list of features including searching, anytime off-campus access, multi user,
downloading, copying and pasting, printing, zooming, highlighting, automatic
citations, emailing, annotating, book reviews, multimedia, note taking and
more, were all considered important. Rowlands et al (2007) distributed an email
survey to staff and students of the University College London and received over
1,800 responses. It was found that 44% of responders had used ebooks and that
age was a good predictor of usage, with under-35s using ebooks more heavily,
and interestingly, users preferring to read from the screen than from paper.
Reading lists, library catalogues, personal recommendations and Google were the
most commonly used ebook discovery tools. The University College London (2007)
then also began the SuperBook project, with results due in late 2008 prior to the
writing of this study. It is interesting that there appears to be as yet no
theoretical framework in the literature to inform or summarise analysis. The
authors have attempted in section 6 to begin that analysis. It is clear from
the proliferation of recent papers that others have had similar ideas at about
the same time as did the QULOC Information Resources and Access Working Party.
This study appears, however, to be the first Australian work. 4. Methods A
questionnaire survey was designed by Martin Borchert and Clare Tittel. Griffith
and USQ liaised and shared the tools with QULOC IRA Working Party members so
the survey questions met the needs of all member institutions. The student and
staff survey instruments for Griffith are provided as Appendix 1 and 2
respectively. The same survey tools were used for USQ, except for minor
differences reflecting the names of academic areas and existing ebook services
used. The survey was conducted over three weeks at USQ and four weeks for
Griffith, from the end of March 2008 to mid April 2008, as an online survey and
supported with printed questionnaires. The survey consisted of separate
instruments for students and staff with a few questions specific to the staff
survey. The following instruments were used: • • • The online survey was made
available via a link on each institution’s library homepage and administered
through the software Survey Methods (2008). A library blog post promoted the
survey on the USQ Library website, notification was placed on the university’s
secure portal, a global email was sent to all university staff, and articles
featured in each University’s newsletter. Printed questionnaires were variously
distributed to students in the refectories and in campus libraries and were
distributed to staff mail boxes.
As the response figures on the online survey were already quite high after only
a few days, the distribution of printed survey questionnaires was discontinued
at USQ after a week and at Griffith after two weeks. The responses from the
printed Page 5
questionnaires were later transferred to the online survey to take advantage of
the analytical tools available through the survey software used. Survey results
were collated by each institution separately to ascertain institutional
differences as a result of academic, student and collection profiles, and were
also combined. 5. Results The response rate was quite high. A total of 2,084
responses were received and 1,732 students and 352 staff completed the survey.
From the student responses received, (894 from Griffith, 838 from USQ), 67% of
respondents are female. The average age range of students at both institutions
is 20-29 years. Across the two institutions, 77% of students were
undergraduates, 18% postgraduate coursework and 5% were postgraduate research.
There was a good range of responses from students across all faculties. The
highest response rate for Griffith was 27% from the Arts & Humanities area,
followed by Business (25%) and Health (25%). For USQ, it was from Business
(28%), followed by Education (27% and Science (18%) (Appendix 3). About 177 or
50% of the 352 responses from staff were from general staff. The high
proportion of responses from this group was unexpected. These responses were
from faculty administration, learning and teaching and library. As academic
staff select and recommend resources for students to use, only their responses
have been included. Of the total academic staff responses received, 63% were
female and 37% male. The average age range was 40-49 years at Griffith and
40-59 years at USQ. The highest response rate by faculty for Griffith academic
staff was from Arts & Humanities (17%) followed by Health(14% and Business
(9%). For USQ it was from the Faculty of Sciences (23%), then Education (23%)
and Business (21%) (Appendix 4). Ninety-three percent of students at Griffith
and 54% of students at USQ indicated they study in on-campus mode. About 7% of
Griffith students study in external mode and 4% via web mode. These figures are
much higher at USQ, with 48% and 10% of students indicating they study via
off-campus or web-mode (Appendices 3). The response rate of on- and off- campus
respondents is representative for each institution, with USQ having a higher
proportion of off campus enrolments and a slightly older age profile than
Griffith. Eighty-nine percent of responding academics are involved in teaching
on campus students, 47% in teaching off campus students and 23% via web mode. A
much higher proportion of USQ academics (83%) than Griffith (37%) is involved
with teaching off campus students. 5.1 Awareness We asked a series of questions
about awareness of ebooks. Awareness levels of the ebook format amongst
students and staff was very high with over 80% and 90% positive responses.
Awareness that their universities are providing ebooks was also high with
responses over 70% for students and 80% for staff. However, the proportion of
students who were unsure (12%) about what is an ebook provides grounds for some
caution in interpreting the results (Appendix 5). Page 6
For 42% of students the primary source for identifying/locating ebooks is the
library catalogue and for 25% of students it is a web search engine. Eighteen
percent of students find out about ebooks through course resources. 53% of
staff respondents find ebooks through the library catalogue, 23% from library
staff, 10% through the library website and 19% through web search engines like
Google. It is heartening that 18% of responses are for course resources, given
the generally low proportion of ebooks that are currently linked in courses
(Appendix 6). Staff are far more focussed: they use Library resources more than
students do, and the effect of Faculty Librarian advice and training is also
very evident. It could be a generational effect that they located ebooks first
through the catalogue, but also a consequence of a need for more specific
searching. Both students and staff generally liked ebooks and many had used
ebooks in their subject area, although not necessarily within the context of
course resources (see Appendix 9). 5.2 Usage Nineteen percent of students
strongly agree and 41% agree that they like ebooks (Appendix 7). There is a
strong base of 60% of student respondents who are appreciative of the ebook
format. Twelve percent of staff strongly agree and 33% agree that they like
ebooks. At USQ 55% of staff respondents said that they liked ebooks, while the
Griffith figure was 32%. This inter-university difference is striking, for
which the reasons are suggested in further discussion. Nineteen percent (28%
staff) have used ebooks often, while forty-five percent of students and 48% of
staff have used ebooks a couple of times. However, fifteen percent of students
and 8% of staff have used an ebook only once and 20% (17% staff) have never
used an ebook (Appendix 8). This proportion of use is still not high compared
with the well known heavy use of e-journals and databases, but is close to
usage in the JISC survey and higher than surveys reported by Levin-Clark
(2006),Rowlands et al (2007) and eBrary (2007). Influential factors require
additional investigation and may include awareness, total numbers of ebooks,
numbers of relevant ebooks and the extent of embedding of links into course
materials. Sixty-one percent of students say they have used an ebook in their
subject area, while 27% have not and 13% have never searched for an ebook in
their subject area. This means 40% of student respondents have not made any use
of ebooks provided by their university library in the context of their studies
(Appendix 9). Appendix 10 shows that 70% of education students have used an
ebook in their subject area, 76% in arts and IT, 62% in business, 55% in
health, 52% in science, 50% in engineering and the lowest was 45% of law
students. Fifty-eight percent of responding staff have used an ebook in their
subject area, whilst 32% have not. The high percentage of academics saying that
they have used an ebook in their subject area is higher than expected
considering that the number of ebooks at each university is still relatively limited
when compared with other electronic resources. Griffith and USQ have been
acquiring ebooks for a Page 7
relatively short period of time (5 years), which will have an impact on usage
and awareness. Eighteen percent of academic staff have gone to the next level,
and used ebooks(s) in their course material, although 82% have not (see
Appendix 11a). At USQ 27% of academic staff indicated that they are using
ebooks in their course materials, as opposed to Griffith academic staff, of
which 15% indicated this. Surprisingly the Arts & Humanities are standing
out with 50% of USQ respondents from that faculty integrating ebooks in their
course material. This is by far the highest usage of any faculty; the lowest
being Information Technology (see Appendix 11b) Griffith’s IT ebooks similarly
were not integrated into course materials (see Appendix 11c). One reason for
the rather low usage of ebooks in course material could be lack of available
and suitable materials. Other reasons could include reluctance to update course
materials, copyright concerns, uncertainty of continued access to annually
subscribed material and lack of awareness of a parallel e-format for previously
selected print-format titles. The under-representation of this format in course
material needs further investigation, and also promotional effort, particularly
since 51% of academics at USQ agree that ebooks are suitable for the courses
they teach (Appendix 12). When asked in which format they would prefer the
library purchased resources, the majority of students and staff alike were
strongly opposed to the library buying only ebooks. At the same time, the
greater majority of both groups supported the library continuing to buy ebooks.
This is also underlined by the high minority of USQ academic respondents saying
that they find ebooks suitable for the courses they teach and for their own
research. Griffith staff are less engaged (Appendix 12). Why is the ebook
format is liked or even preferred to the print format? The responses indicate
that users are well aware of the specific advantages and characteristics of
this format (Appendix 13). The most liked feature of ebooks is the 24x7 access
from home or office. This was consistent across institutions and respondent
type. Library users are becoming increasingly time-independent learners and
assume instant accessibility. The next most important feature for staff and
students is searching functionality that enables users to search across a whole
ebook or to search across a complete collection of ebooks. This gives an ebook
a functional advantage over the print book with its dependence on indexes and
tables of contents for searching. The advantage of not needing to physically
borrow that is clearly favoured by students probably reflects both the
off-campus means of student access, but perhaps also could reflect frustration
with existing loan conditions. Online referencing and copying and pasting were
other reasons why ebooks are liked. The main reasons selected by students why
ebooks are disliked included difficulty in reading from the screen (48%), cost
of printing pages (44%), slow downloads (38%) and online access problems (38%)
(Appendix 14). Access problems and slow downloads though still important are
not ranking as highly as a reason for dislike, which may well indicate /
confirm increasing stability of technical infrastructure and ebook services.
The main dislike factors for academics were difficulty in reading from the
screen (63%), slow downloads (47%), cost of printing pages (43%) and online
access problems (41%). Is age-related eye strain a factor, or is it a cultural
issue? We suspect the latter but this requires more investigation. Do academics
have slower equipment/network access? Or download larger files? Page 8
Or are they less tolerant of speed barriers? From these results it is clear
that the most serious barrier to the acceptance of ebooks is the dislike of
reading from the computer screen. This is in agreement with some previous
studies, but not all. 5.3 Usage patterns Students and staff approach the ebook
format with a view to extracting particular information. Twenty-seven percent
of student respondents (35% staff) prefer to read excerpts and 33% (26% staff)
prefer to read a chapter, whilst only 7% of students and 6% of staff
respondents said they would read an entire ebook online (Appendix 15).
Forty-eight percent of students and 43% of staff would read an ebook online
whilst 51% of students and 57% of staff would prefer to print and read from the
printed copy. Forty-nine percent of students and 38% of staff respondents would
read an entire book on the screen, and 51% of students and 62% of staff said
they would print an entire ebook and read from the printed copy (Appendix 16).
However, log statistics from the ebook services contradict this pattern of
usage. There is a much smaller percentage of pages printed than viewed, so it
is more likely that only a very small percentage of users would read an entire
ebook, much less print the entire work, even if copyright laws or publishers
permitted this. Forty percent of student and 38% of staff respondents indicate
that they can spend 30 minutes reading from the screen, 21% of students and 31%
of staff can spend 10 minutes reading from the screen, 21% of students and 15%
of staff one hour. 13% of students and 10% of staff would spend two and more
hours reading from the screen (see Appendix 17). Log statistics from USQ of the
ebook provider Books24x7 show that 47% or the biggest group of users are
spending up to 30 minutes in this service per session and more users are
spending up to 2 hours or even longer in the service that they reported. Over a
period of eight months,1,180 USQ users logged into Books24X7. Fifty percent of
users had only 1 session during this time; 22% of users had 2 to 3 sessions; 14%
had 4 to 9 sessions and 11% had over 10 sessions. This means that 50% of users
log in only once, and are then not returning. The reasons for this require
further investigation. Twenty-five percent of users are repeat customers for
which ebooks appear to be meeting a significant need. The combination of time
spent and number of pages viewed for this group also provides useful
information. Twenty percent of users spent 0 to 1 minute in the service.
Forty-seven percent spent 2 to 30 minutes per session. Eleven percent of users
spent up to 1 hour, 6% up to 2 hours and 14% spent over two hours per session
logged into Books24x7. 32% of users were not opening any documents or were
viewing only one page. These comprised 8% of all sessions. Twenty-five percent
of users were viewing 2 to 10 pages and these comprised 9% of all sessions. 30%
of users were viewing up to 100 pages and these comprised 30% of all sessions.
Ten percent of users were viewing more than 100 pages, comprising 20% of all
sessions.
Page 9
Almost a third of the users who use the service are not receiving any results.
These could be first-time or casual users, or even students in a class being
shown ebooks for the first time. Log data shows that these users typically do
not return. There is also a group of users (almost a third) who do not spend a
great deal of time searching, but are retrieving results. The final third of
users are frequent and therefore experienced users, who are getting
sufficiently good results to return and could be considered satisfied
customers. The log statistics from the “eBrary” service over a one year period
show that on average 12 pages were viewed per session, 0.4 pages per session
were copied and 1.5 pages per session were printed. The overall number of pages
viewed by session is quite comparable with the statistics from Books24x7.
Unfortunately data about the number of pages printed or copied was not
available from the latter service. (Log statistics are available in Appendix
18). 5.4 Services used Finally, we sought to identify particular ebook services
which respondents had used. The services listed were those which the libraries
make available but also included ProQuest and Ebsco, which are heavily used
platforms for various ejournal databases though not specifically ebook
platforms (Appendices 19 and 20). All ebook services listed had been used, but
clearly at both universities the generalist services with large suites of
content were most recognised and used (Books@OVID, EBL, eBrary, Informit). At
USQ, 52% of academics selected eBrary and 46% Ebsco. Surprisingly, 23% of
academic respondents also selected ScienceDirect ebooks and 21% recognised
Wiley Interscience, though USQ has only a very small number of ebook titles in
these services. eBrary emerged as USQ’s favourite ebook service which is
confirmed by its usage statistics. The wider range of ebook services available
at Griffith is a reflection of the more diverse subject areas taught and
researched at the larger institution. Griffith has had 55,000 plus EBL ebook
titles available via its library catalogue since early 2007 and the high
recognition of EBL is recognition of this. The ProQuest name is very well known
for ejournals and that factor will have mitigated the lack of ebooks through
that service. The high selection of EBSCO (USQ) and ProQuest (Griffith)
suggests some confusion between ebooks and e-journals/databases. Finally
students and staff were able to offer their opinion/comments on ebooks in
general. Overall the comments were positive and representative examples are
found in Appendices 21 and 22.
Page 10
6. Discussion 6.1 Awareness The level of awareness of ebooks and of their
availability in the respective university libraries amongst students and
academic staff, is unexpectedly high regardless of subject, mode of teaching,
gender and age. This contrasts with the Chu (2003) study. The perceived
awareness level is in agreement with more recent studies (Rowlands, 2007; and
eBrary, 2008). We suggest that general awareness of ebooks has substantially increased
since then, both as the result of the general increase in electronic resource
use since then but also as the result of the greatly increased content now
available in ebook format. Major factors for creating awareness about the
availability of ebooks are access through the library catalogue for both
students and staff; and for academics, promotion through library staff.
Continuing improvement in awareness amongst academic staff will depend
particularly significantly on the advocacy and activities of library liaison
with faculty in academic departments. Increasing awareness amongst students
will require a greater promotion through academic staff and greater inclusion
of ebooks in course resources and course material, but also more active
promotion and improving visibility of this format amongst other library
information resources. This study found that the library catalogue and library
staff were more influential awareness mechanisms than the library website. This
contrasts with the primacy of the website reported in the JISC study (2007),
and confirms the emphasis found in the UCL Superbook study (2007). 6.2
Acceptance The level of acceptance of ebooks differed between students and
staff, and also between staff at the two universities. Students are more accepting
of ebooks than are staff. This appears to correlate with the previous study by
Rowlands (2007) that age was a good predictor of usage of ebooks. Staff at USQ
are more accepting of ebooks than are staff at Griffith and this appears to
correlate with USQ having a greater online presence in course offerings,
although a direct cause and effect relationship cannot be assumed. USQ staff
would however, obtain significant benefits in online delivery of course
materials by using ebooks over print books. 6.3 Usage Results from this study
indicate that both students and staff prefer to read only extracts or chapters
from ebooks rather than the whole ebook. One of the greatest factors affecting
both acceptance and usage of ebooks appeared to be users’ comfort levels with
reading from the screen. This study indicated that most users preferred to read
ebooks from the screen for only up to 30 minutes. This was substantiated by log
statistics obtained from Books24x7 which confirm that most users are readings
online for up to 30 minutes only and open 100 ebook pages or less during a
session. Results from this study seem to agree with those found by Chu (2003),
Connoway (2007) and to a lesser extent the JISC (2008) study, but this last
study also reported that over 50% of ebook users read from the screen. Page 11
6.4 A model of ebook adoption The following model is inspired by the work on
innovation diffusion of Rogers (1995) and a typology of Internet use developed
by Howard, Rainie and Jones (2001). In their suggested typology, four ‘ideal
types’ of users (Netizens, Utilitarians, Experimenters and Newcomers) are
elucidated using length of Internet experience and frequency of use as
variables. In our study, the two variables selected are amount of use and
awareness/satisfaction, The four quadrant model is a tentative and conceptual
attempt to represent how ebooks are currently meeting the needs of our users.
Learners/lurkers: are either learning the system (in classes?) or are trying
the system without a specified need. They probably don’t stay long enough to
locate or use the material they need, and certainly don’t browse other related
topics or books. Browsers: Browsers spend time in ebook services but possibly
don’t gain the benefits that they wish. They don’t download a lot of material,
though they may make notes from the screen, and may annotate, mark etc. This
typology doesn’t identify whether such users are inefficient but keen, or are
efficient because they don’t download material. Efficient users:,These have a functional
approach to using information services (Howard et.al, p. 393). Possibly with a
known item to search for, they locate the item and either find the answer, or
print/download the required materials, then exit. If they don’t locate the
material, they don’t attempt to substitute or explore. Satisfied users: These
users are more like the good library users of old: they search, browse and
spend time in single or multiple services and are confident in their use.
Figure 1. suggests that there are various pathways from complete ignorance of
ebooks to engagement with and satisfaction in use of ebooks.
Amount of use
Browsers (Experimenters)
Satisfied Users (Netizens)
Learners / Lurkers (Newcomers)
Efficient Users (Utilitarians)
Awareness / satisfaction Figure 1.: Typology of ebook users
Page 12
6.5 Implications for collection development The overall positive acceptance of
ebooks, and the preference for books to be purchased in both print and ebook
format, can be used to inform the collection development policies and
activities of each institution. That users prefer to have both formats
available indicates that collection development policies and practices should
be flexible: purchase of ebooks should not replace purchase of print books.
Feedback supporting both formats should be taken in the general sense and not
in the specific sense that every book should be purchased in both print and
ebook format. Particularly encouraging was that academics thought that ebooks
would be suitable for the courses they teach and would be preferred for their
own research and scholarship if suitable titles were available. Students,
especially off-campus students, clearly expressed a desire for more textbooks
and ebooks in their subject areas. The textbook issue is in direct alignment
with the JISC (2007) National eBook Observatory Project which identified access
to course textbooks as a primary issue for library access to books in both
print and ebook formats. Libraries should work closely with academics in all
subject areas to select texts and other course resources keeping available
ebooks in mind. 6.6 Promotion Because content is now much more extensive, and
user acceptance is high, academic staff are much more likely to be able to
select textbooks and other standard publications, and more specifically
chapters and excerpts of ebooks, for specific course readings. This would
promote the use of ebooks through the links from online courses to specific
ebook titles. Linking at the chapter level may be highly desirable where possible
because most users reported a preference for reading only excerpts online.
Ebook promotion needs to leverage the convenience, searchability and
accessibility of ebooks as a format. Remote students, students studying at home
or at work, and students in a hurry to research assignments are attracted to
ebooks simply because of the time they save. This suggests ebooks should be
promoted as a collection, or as a brand within the University. Collections of
ebooks presented as ebook databases can be promoted in their own right. A
problem with this is that many ebook database products have non-subject based
names that are meaningless to library users. Providing access to lists of ebook
databases on the library web site provides some contextualised access. It is
probably more client focused and meaningful to promote ebooks in the context of
the library’s ebook collection as a whole using a filtered search of all ebook
records in the library catalogue, narrowing search results using facets, or
using a federated database search service and open URL resolver service.
Although searching is generally marketed as a key selling point for ebooks, our
survey results did not particularly support the specific promotion of the added
Page 13
features of ebooks such as, highlighting and note taking, automatic citations,
zooming, annotating, book reviews and multimedia.
Page 14
6.7 Evaluation of Survey Method and Instrument Following the completion of the
study, some comments are made about the survey method and the survey
instrument. Survey method: • • The high response rate for both institutions
indicates that the right approach for promoting the survey was taken and access
points for the survey on the library websites and other locations were
appropriate Print surveys were initially thought to be important as it was
thought that online survey access would be self selecting for ebook proficient
users. The printed questionnaires were not nearly as popular as the online
instrument, although they were easily available and attractive. However, in the
early days of the survey, clients who were approached to complete the print
survey said that they preferred to do the survey online at a time convenient to
them. The selection of Survey Methods (2008) as survey software was a good
decision as it allowed generation, graphing and charting of detailed reports
for all questions and by each respondent group. Reports could be exported in
various formats such as excel or PDF files and were easy to generate. Hindsight
with using Survey Methods says we should not have developed two separate
surveys for staff and students, but should have used one single survey for both
groups. This was because we were unable to combine results in a single report.
As a result, additional collation and manipulation of raw data files was
necessary.
•
Survey instrument: • • • • Questions had been developed to match similar
surveys done overseas to provide us with comparison data. This was a productive
approach The sequence of questions could have been more logical to follow the
order of awareness - acceptance - usage Some questions of acceptance of ebooks
in comparison to print books were too complex and the request to apply a
ranking value was confusing Additional control questions relating to use of
print books would have made interpretation of results more rigorous because it
would have allowed a direct comparison of results for ebooks and print books.
We note that the recent ebrary survey did ask such control questions The set of
questions about usage patterns did not prove to be as meaningful as intended,
because we were not able to obtain the detailed log statistics from a variety
of publishers as originally intended. This topic could be explored in a
separate further study that could include both deep log data from providers,
keyboard tracking surveys, and observational studies. We are pleased that the
JISC Observatory Project is taking that approach There is a multitude of
information contained in the responses which can still be further explored with
follow up interviews with staff or students We conclude that the instrument
developed for this survey should probably not be used in its current form by
other libraries without some reworking. Reformulation of some questions and
restructuring of order would be necessary. Page 15
•
• •
7. Conclusion Both Griffith and USQ consider the QULOC eBook Survey to be a
success because response rates from students and staff were reasonably high,
useful responses were obtained, and some issues with the awareness, usage and
acceptance were identified. Considerable insight can be drawn from the survey
results. This will be used to confirm the collection development strategy as
outlined in the Griffith’s Information Resources Management Guide and USQ’s
Resource Development Policy. Griffith and USQ aim to continue their existing
approach to collect monographs in both print and electronic format, and will
endeavour to purchase more texts in electronic format when available giving
equivalent priority to each format though not necessarily equal numbers. We
intend to use user-driven purchasing models, restrict when possible the numbers
of platforms accessed to those with demonstrated high use, and continue to use
non-platform-dependant discovery means. Results from external ebook studies
will be used to reaffirm the approach. The success of the study suggests a
follow-up study could be conducted in the future. It would be interesting to
see how awareness, usage and acceptance may change over time, and also whether
collection development policies regarding ebooks have been successful or not.
It is yet to determined by Griffith, USQ and QULOC if a follow-up study will be
pursued. Equity issues surrounding the availability and usage of ebooks could
also be considered in a subsequent study.
CIS 8018 Strategic information security
8. References Carlock, D., Perry, A., 2007, Exploring faculty experiences with
ebooks; a focus group, Library Hi Tech, vol. 26, iss. 2, pp. 244-254 Chu, H.,
2003, Electronic books: Viewpoints from users and potential users, Library Hi
Tech, vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 340-346. Connoway, L., 2007, The emerging role of
ebooks, Association of Research Libraries (ARL), viewed 12 August 2008, eBrary,
2007, ebrary’s global ebook survey, viewed 10 July 2008, : Howard, P., Rainie,
L., Jones, S., 2001, Days and nights on the Internet: the impact of a diffusing
technology, American Behavioral Scientist, vol. 45, pp. 383-404, viewed 17
December 2008, Joint Information Steering Committee, 2007/8, JISC national
e-books observatory project, viewed 12 August 2008, Levin-Clarke, M., 2006,
Electronic book usage: a survey at the University of Denver, Portal, vol. 6,
no. 3, pp. 285-299. QULOC – Queensland Universities Office of Cooperation,
Viewed 17 December 2008, Rogers, E., 1995, Diffusion of innovations, New York:
Free Press. Rowlands, I., et al, 2007, What do faculty and students really
think about e-books?, Aslib Proceedings: New Information Perspectives, vol. 59,
no. 6, pp. 489-511. Survey Methods, 2008, viewed 17 December 2008, University
College London, 2007, SuperBook – preparing for the ebook revolution, viewed 12
August 2008, Walton, E., 2007, Faculty and student perceptions of using e-books
in a small academic institution, ACRL 13th National Conference, viewed 12
August 2008,
Page 17
Appendices Appendix 1 – Survey tool – Griffith University / QULOC ebook survey
tool for students The University library is conducting a survey on student
awareness, acceptance and use of electronic books (ebooks). A similar survey is
being conducted for staff. The results of the survey will be used to help us
plan and build the library collections for the future. The survey should take
only 10 minutes to complete. Please provide your contact details on the final
page if you wish to be included in the lucky draw to win a $75 gift voucher.
All responses will be treated confidentially.
1.
The following statements are about you. Undergraduate student 1.1 I am an:
Postgraduate research student 1.2 I am: Female Male Postgraduate coursework
student
1.3 I am in the following age group: Less than 20 years old 20-29 years old
30-39 years old 40-49 years old 50-59 years old 60 years or older I am a
student in the following area(s). (You may select more than one): Arts &
Humanities Education Law Business Health Science Engineering Environment
Information Technology
I am enrolled in the following mode of study. (You may select more than one).
Internal students Off campus students Off campus students (On campus) (External
mode) (Web mode) 2. The following statements are about your awareness level of
eBooks. 2.1 I have heard of ebooks: Yes No
If you answered ‘No’ to Statement 2.1, you have completed the survey, thank
you. If you answered ‘Yes’, please proceed to the next question.
2.2 2.3
I know what an ebook is: I have used an ebook:
Yes Once Never
No
Not sure
A couple of times Often
Page 18
2.4
I am aware that my University library provides access to ebooks: Yes No Not
sure
2.5
I found out about ebooks from: Library catalogue search Course resources Other
University staff Other (please indicate) Library web site search Library Staff
Web search engine (e.g. Google)
3.
The following statements are about your acceptance level of ebooks. 3.1 I have
used an ebook in my subject area Yes No I have not searched
Using the following grading scheme please circle your response to the
statements: 1 Strongly disagree 2 Disagree 3 Neutral 4 Agree 5 Strongly agree
3.2
Ebooks are as good as print books 1 2 3 4 5
3.3
The library should continue to purchase books in print format only and not buy
ebooks 1 2 3 4 5
3.4
The library should purchase books in both print and ebook format 1 2 3 4 5
3.5
The library should purchase book titles in ebook format instead of print format
1 2 3 4 5
3.6
I like using ebooks because: (Please rank from 1 = highest to 7 = lowest) 24x7
access from home or office Searching across the ebook Copying and pasting Other
(please indicate) I don’t have to borrow the book Searching across a database
of books Easy online referencing
Page 19
3.7
I dislike using ebooks because: (Please rank from 1 = highest to 5 = lowest)
Online access problems Cost of printing pages Other (please indicate) Slow
downloads Difficulty in reading from the screen
Continuing to use the following grading scheme please circle your response statement
4.1: 1 Strongly disagree 2 Disagree 3 Neutral 4 Agree 5 Strongly agree
4.
Usage and Usage Patterns 4.1 I like using ebooks 1 2 3 4 5
4.2
I prefer to read: The whole ebook Chapters from ebooks Excerpts from ebooks All
of the aforementioned
4.3
When I read a part of an ebook, such as a chapter, I prefer to: Read it on the
screen Print and read from the printed copy
4.4
When I read an entire ebook I prefer to: Read it on the screen Print and read
from the printed copy
4.5 When I use ebooks I can comfortably spend the following amount of time
reading from the screen: 10 minutes 2 hours 30 minutes More than 2 hours 1 hour
Not at all
Page 20
4.6
I have used the following ebook services: OECD : source OECD studies,
periodicals and statistics : online MDConsult NetLibrary Project Gutenberg
ProQuest PsycBooks (APA) PsycEXTRA (APA) Proquest Dissertations full-text
Safari Business Books Online Safari Technical Books Online ScienceDirect eBooks
STAT!Ref - Nursing and Allied Health Collection STAT!Ref - Dental collection
Taylor & Francis eBook Collection Wiley InterScience OnlineBook
Bennetts eTitlebooks24x7 Books@OVID Clinics@Ovid CRC Press titles: ENGnetBASE
NEUROSCIENCEnetBASE EBL eBook Library eBrary EBSCO Facts and Comparisons Humana
Press titles: BioMedProtocols NeuroSciNow Informit eLibrary Knovel.com Lecture
Notes in Computer Science McGraw-Hills Access Medicine Other (please indicate)
4.7
My favourite ebook service is: Because:
5.
Have your say Please provide any additional comments about ebooks:
Thank you for completing the survey. Please provide your contact details below
if you wish to be included in the lucky draw to win a $75 gift voucher. All
responses will be treated confidentially. First name: Contact Phone No:
Page 21
Appendix 2 – Survey tool – Griffith University / QULOC ebook survey tool for
staff The University library is conducting a survey on staff awareness,
acceptance and use of electronic books (ebooks). A similar survey is being
conducted for students. The results of the survey will be used to help us plan
and build the library collections for the future. The survey should take only
10 minutes to complete. Please provide your contact details on the final page
if you wish to be included in the lucky draw to win a $75 gift voucher. All
responses will be treated confidentially. 1. The following statements are about
you. 1.1 1.2 I am: I am: Academic staff Female General staff Male
1.3 I am in the following age group: Less than 20 years old 20-29 years old
30-39 years old 40-49 years old 50-59 years old 60 years or older 1.4 I am a
staff member in the following area(s). (You may select more than one):
Administration Education Health Law Arts & Humananities Engineering
Information Services Science Business Environment Information Technology
I teach students in the following mode. (You may select more than one). Please
tick this box if do not teach) ( Internal students Off campus students Off
campus students (On campus) (External mode) (Web mode) 2. The following
statements are about your awareness level of ebooks. 2.1 I have heard of
ebooks: Yes No
If you answered ‘No’ to Statement 2.1, you have completed the survey, thank
you. If you answered ‘Yes’, please proceed to the next question.
2.2 2.3
I know what an ebook is: I have used an ebook:
Yes Once Never
No
Not sure
A couple of times Often
Page 22
2.6
I am aware that my University library provides access to ebooks: Yes No Not
sure
2.7
I found out about ebooks from: Library catalogue search Course resources Other
University staff Other (please indicate) Library web site search Library Staff
Web search engine (e.g. Google)
3.
The following statements are about your acceptance level of ebooks. 3.1 I have
used an ebook in my subject area : Yes No I have not searched I am using
ebook(s) in my course materials or courses readings Yes No
3.2
Using the following grading scheme please circle your response to the
statements: 1 Strongly disagree 2 Disagree 3 Neutral 4 Agree 5 Strongly agree
3.3
eBooks are as good as print books 1 2 3 4 5
3.4 The library should continue to purchase books in print format only and not
buy ebooks 1 3.6 2 3 4 5
The library should purchase book titles in both print and ebook format 1 2 3 4
5
3.7
The library should purchase book titles in ebook format instead of print format
1 2 3 4 5
3.7 If available, I would prefer to use ebooks as resources than print books
for the courses I teach ( Please tick this box if you do not teach) 1 3.8 2 3 4
5
ebooks are suitable resources for the courses I teach ( Please tick this box if
do not teach) Page 23
1
2
3
4
5
3.9 If available, I would prefer to use ebooks for my research and scholarship
( Please tick this box if are not involved in research) 1 3.10 2 3 4 5
I like using ebooks because: (Please rank from 1 = highest to 7 = lowest) 24x7
access from home or office I don’t have to borrow the book Searching across the
ebook Searching across a database of books Copying and pasting Easy online
referencing Other (please indicate)
3.11
I dislike using ebooks because: (Please rank from 1 = highest to 5 = lowest)
Slow downloads Difficulty in reading from the screen
Online access problems Cost of printing pages Other (please indicate)
Continuing to use the following grading scheme please circle your response
statement 4.1: 1 Strongly disagree 2 Disagree 3 Neutral 4 Agree 5 Strongly
agree
4.
Usage and Usage Patterns 4.1 I like using ebooks 1 4.3 I prefer to read: The
whole ebook Chapters from ebooks 4.3 Excerpts from ebooks All of the
aforementioned 2 3 4 5
When I read a part of an ebook, such as a chapter, I prefer to: Read it on the
screen Print and read from the printed copy
4.4
When I read an entire ebook I prefer to: Read it on the screen Print and read
from the printed copy
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4.5 When I use ebooks I can comfortably spend the following amount of time
reading from the screen: 10 minutes 2 hours 4.7 30 minutes More than 2 hours 1
hour Not at all
I have used the following ebook services: OECD : source OECD studies,
periodicals and statistics : online MDConsult NetLibrary Project Gutenberg
ProQuest PsycBooks (APA) PsycEXTRA (APA) Proquest Dissertations full-text
Safari Business Books Online Safari Technical Books Online ScienceDirect eBooks
STAT!Ref - Nursing and Allied Health Collection STAT!Ref - Dental collection
Taylor & Francis eBook Collection Wiley InterScience OnlineBook
Bennetts eTitleBooks24x7 Books@OVID Clinics@Ovid CRC Press titles: ENGnetBASE
NEUROSCIENCEnetBASE EBL EBook Library eBrary EBSCO Facts and Comparisons Humana
Press titles: BioMedProtocols NeuroSciNow Informit eLibrary Knovel.com Lecture
Notes in Computer Science McGraw-Hills Access Medicine Other (please indicate)
4.7 My favourite ebook service is: Because:
6.
Have your say Please provide any additional comments about ebooks:
Thank you for completing the survey. Please provide your contact details below
if you wish to be included in the lucky draw to win a $75 gift voucher. All
responses will be treated confidentially. First name: Contact Phone No: Page 25
Appendix 3 Characteristics of student respondents from both institutions
Characteristics of Student Respondents
100 90 80 70 60
Status
Age
Faculty or subject area
USQ GU
% 50
40 30 20 10 0 Environment IT p/g research Education Science Internal Engng
female Health male u/g 60 Offcamp (ext) p/g coursework Offcamp (Web) Business
Arts Law
Appendix 4 – Characteristics of staff responses from both institutions
Characteristics Staff Respondents
70 60 50 40 % 30 20 10 0 Environment Arts& Humanities male Health Engineering
Information Services Education Administration Information Technology female
20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 >60 Business Sciences Law USQ GU
Gender
Age
Discipline or faculty area
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Appendix 5 – Awareness of ebooks
Awareness of e-books (%)
100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
Yes student Yes staff No student No staff Unsure student Unsure staff I have
heard of ebooks I know what an ebook is I am aware that my University library
provides access to e-books:
Appendix 6 – Source of awareness
I found out about e-books from
60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Library catalogue Library w ebsite Course Library staff
resources Uni staff Search Engine Other Students Staff
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Appendix 7 – Attitude towards ebooks
I like using e-books (%)
45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Strongly agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly
disagree
Students Staff
Appendix 8 – Usage of ebooks
I have used an e-book
50 40 30 20 10 0 Never Once Couple of times Often Students Staff
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Appendix 9 – Use of ebooks in subject areas
Use of e-books in my subject area
70 60 50
%
40 30 20 10 0 Yes No I have not searched
All Students All Staff
Appendix 10 – Use of ebooks in subject area Total and by Faculty
Student Subject material use by Faculty
80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
Yes No I have not searched
%
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Appendix 11 Appendix 11a Using ebooks in course materials
Usage of e-books in course material (%)
100 80 60 40 20 0 USQ academic staff GU academic staff
yes
no
Appendix 11b Usage of ebooks by USQ academics in course materials
Appendix 11c Usage of ebooks by Griffith academics in course materials
Academics usage of ebooks in course materials
30 25 20 15 10 5 0 No Yes
A Bu rts sin Ed es u s En cat gi io n n En e e vir ring on m en He t al th
IT
La Sc w ie nc e
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Appendix 12 Student and staff acceptance of ebooks
Acceptance of e-books (%)
90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
e-books are as good as pbooks purchase pbooks only purchase both e- and p-books
purchase ebooks only e-books suitable for courses prefer e-books for research
USQ Students GU Students USQ Staff GU Staff
Appendix 13 Reasons why ebooks are liked
Why e-books are liked
80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 24x7 access searching across the e-book searching
across w hole database copying and pasting don't have to borrow a book Students
Staff
Page 31
Appendix 14 – Reasons why ebooks are disliked
Why e-books are disliked
70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Online access problems Cost of printing pages Slow dow
nloads Difficulty in reading from screen Students Staff
Appendix 15 – How ebooks are read
I prefer to read
40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Whole e-book Chapters Excerpts All of these Students
Staff
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Appendix 16 – Reading on screen vs printing
Reading on screen vs printing
70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 read chapter on the read chapter from read entire book
on print entire e- book screen printed copy screen Students Staff
Appendix 17 – Time comfortably spent reading from the screen Time spent reading
from screen
45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 10 minutes 30 minutes 1 hour 2 hours more than 2
hours
Students Staff
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Appendix 18 – Log statistics Books 24x7. Length of time reading on the screen
Time spent reading from the screen
50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 0 to 1 minute 2 to 30 minutes to 1 hour to 2
hours more than 2 hours Survey respondents Books24x7 log statistics
Number of session per user over 8 months
Books24x7 : Sessions per user May to Dec 2008
60 50 40 30 20 10 0 USQ users
1 session
2-3 sessions
4-9 sessions
10 and more sessions
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Appendix 18 continued Ebrary log statistics
Books24x7: Time per session
50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 0 to 1 minute 2 to 30 minutes to 1 hour to 2
hours more than 2 hours USQ users
Pages viewed by session
Search success by pages viewed
35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 0 to 1 pages view ed 2-10 pages view ed 11-100 pages view
ed more than 100 pages view ed USQ users Sessions
Page 35
Appendix 19 – Specific ebook services (USQ responses) - % of total responses
Page 36
Appendix 20 – Specific ebook services (all Griffith responses) - % of total
responses
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Appendix 21 – Student comments USQ I have viewed the library resources on how
to use ebooks, however I still feel I don't have the skills to use ebooks to
the best advantage. I wish there were more of them. In summary, I think they
provide a good service. It is always better to have online access which not
only saves time it has other benefits too. Need to be able to access faster.
Need more ebooks in all subject areas. Ebooks are very convenient on a
notebook. Saves printing pages. Great portability. Ebooks not convenient on a
PC. Need to print pages. No portability. I am really happy with the ebooks
offered by USQ. I think they should be promoted more (I found out through other
students their availability and how to use them). However, printed books are
also very important. They sound quite basic, in that they must be a book
accessed and read on the internet. The name sounds familiar but I have never
been told about, seen or used one of them. It would be a great idea if there
were online textbooks, as in many courses a lot of the required texts offer
only the minimal necessary information. It's hard enough to afford student life
without spending hundreds of dollars on textbooks which you will never fully
read and which will not be useful in the long run. Have not had a lot of
experience with them. Textbooks online as ebooks would be awesome for those of
us experiencing financial difficulty in getting books for subjects. Some of the
older books are great even if access is only available in ebook. Because I am a
distance education student, I heavily rely on ebooks. They are invaluable. I
would like to see many more ebooks and journals though USQ. They are also
convenient & I love that I can make notes online, highlight, copy &
paste etc. The downsides are: the search functions-too slow & time
consuming. I can't concentrate for long when reading online. I don't like the
bookshelf in ebrary - it's too erratic, especially with all my highlights. I'd
like to use ebooks, because I'm external student, difficult to find and buy
textbook from own country, so find and buy or download any ebooks through the
Page 38
internet, if I buy textbook through online shopping, I need to wait many days
for let the textbook delivery to my home. Griffith University An extremely
useful means of obtaining reference material in an accurate and expedient
manner. there are great and easy to use. I like having access to ebooks of
popular titles. Often all copies have been borrowed from the library, and it is
very helpful to be able to access the text from home. I didn't realise that
there was so many ebooks. I am currently overseas on exchange and Griffith
ebooks are proving invaluable to my research. Through ebooks, I have access to
two libraries (both at Griffith and my overseas university), which gives me
even greater choice of sources when researching. It also allows me to continue
to use the system from my home institution, which I am familiar with and is
very convenient. The best thing ever for external students, no opening hours or
renewals or late fees. ebooks easy to use and beats overdue library fines. It
is the only one I know how to use. I don't remember which services I have used,
always accessed through library catalogue. Because it is free! (through the
Griffith Library website). It is the one I am most familiar with, plus it
allows printing of page ranges, rather than page by page. I can download it,
read it within the borrow time, and be finished with it without needing to
return it - ie, risk library fines.
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Appendix 22 – Staff comments USQ They are an essential part of contemporary
research patterns. They are immediately available and easily searched for
relevant materials. They allow excerpts to be copied and used where required.
They save considerable expense for students and save having to transport
printed copies to difficult locations. Ebooks help EXT, ONC-Twba, ONC-Spr, and
ONC-FC students enrolled in my undergraduate courses. Ebooks help psychology
honours students who live intrastate and interstate and who are doing research
projects with me. Ebooks help me complete my research projects. Unfortunately,
EXT students who are in prison and who are taking my courses can not access
ebooks. ebooks are very handy. I think Library needs to publicize the availability
of ebooks bit more. They should also be easily "findable" in the
Library Catalogue. Ease of access by students make ebooks very suitable for
additional material for courses. Good resources to ensure students from around
the globe have access to textbooks. Ebooks are an excellent resource for
off-campus students. However, I prefer to read in print format as would prefer
a balance of both types. I need more information to access ebooks efficiently;
someone told me you cannot use Endnote with ebooks and that is not efficient.
Dislike ebooks: loads one page at a time so can't search whole book for a key
term. Sorry. I have never heard of them. I download and purchase ebooks.
However, the service the library subscribes to does not allow downloads - just
part of a page at a time. It is worse than useless. Griffith Having access to
my own 'bookshelf' of ebooks and being able to make notes, review books or
tagged pages etc at a later date is invaluable. By having my own electronic
library bookshelf I am able to maintain, monitor and update this information.
If the electronic library also enabled storage of PDF journal articles,
tagging, notes etc. as well this would be a powerful resource. If it is
available I don't know about it, which suggests an information dissemination
issue. While I use some e books my main interest in e books is to provide
access to books electronically for the online delivery of programs where
students need to access books in a timely fashion. In this time of rising
educational costs for students ebooks are a viable cost effective option - IF
they have access to computers and afford the download or printing. Page 40
These are great for courses with large numbers of students as they allow lots
of students to access the books rather than them "fighting" over the
one or two print copies. However, for indepth reading they are frustrating and
quite unsuitable for research/scholarship purposes. Slow download and
restricted to one day on computer – useless. They are all equally bad because
ebook as a book form is a very bad idea, especially in the university teaching
and learning environment. I find access to ebooks to be too restrictive.
END REPORT
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References
