One of the biggest stories of the recent holiday shopping season was the explosive growth of eBook sales. Yet up to now, surprisingly little data has been available about teachers’ eBook purchases – not to mention their use of eBooks in the classroom.
In an effort to fill this void, Egremont Associates and edWeb.net – with support from MCH Strategic Data and TecKnoQuest, Inc. – recently conducted a survey of K-12 teachers and librarians to find out how many of them had purchased eBooks and eBook readers, how they are using them in schools, and what they think of them. A recently published report, eBooks: K-12 Educators’ Usage and Attitudes, presents the detailed results of the survey.
The most interesting finding, according to Neal Goff, President of Egremont Associates, is that school librarians are way ahead of teachers in their purchases of eBooks for professional use. The reason: funding. More than 92% of librarians say that their school funds at least some of their eBook purchases; only 30% of teachers say the same thing.
Other interesting differences between the two groups included the following:
- 46% of teachers report that they’ve never either bought eBooks or obtained them free of charge. Only 29% of librarians report no eBook acquisitions at all.
- eBook-buying librarians bought an average of 17.9 eBooks for professional development purposes in the past year, compared to teachers’ average of 3.6.
The report contains considerably more detail, including statistics on K-12 educators’ ownership of eBook reading devices and their future purchase plans, as well as extensive quotes from teachers describing how they use eBooks in their classrooms.
For answers to questions about the report, contact Neal Goff at nealgoff@gmail.com.
For information on how to buy the report, visit www.EgremontAssociates.com or www.dedicatedteacher.com/ebooksurvey. The report is available to AEP members for $79 — a $20 discount off the full retail price. Contact Stacey Pusey at 302-295-8349 to get your discount code.
Educational Publishing 
Very interesting information. While it seems ebooks are becoming much more mainstream in the consumer world, the educational arena is lagging behind. I noticed the comment about funding and wonder how many times ebooks aren’t considered because they aren’t covered in the current funding methods or teachers don’t think they can be purchased.
Thank you.