Book format ROI study

This 2025 study focused on bestsellers and other notable books to provide a fairly accurate picture of what librarians face when selecting and maintaining digital content. In comparing print and ebook formats, researchers found that “The data forces us to conclude, reluctantly, that not only does print still offer libraries a far better bang-per-book than digital, but that for most popular titles, digital collections are becoming increasingly difficult to sustain. Some smaller and independent publishers are, however, now more likely to be present in the market and offer some hope for long-term and cost-effective holdings.”

Blackwell, M. et al. (2025). Ebook availability, licensing, and pricing in Canada and the U.S. Computers in Libraries, 45(6).

https://www.infotoday.com/cilmag/jul25/Blackwell-Halperin-Mason-Parker--Ebook-Availability-Licensing-and-Pricing-in-Canada-and-the-US-A-Follow-Up-Study.shtml

World Reading Habits in 2020

 A lengthy infographic shows reading habits around the world in 2020. Aspects include reading formats, gender and generation trends, habits by continent -- and the US. 

Cabrera, I. (2020, Nov. 6). World reading habits in 2020. Global English Editing. https://geediting.com/world-reading-habits-2020/

News evaluation study

A new study shows that trust and reliability in news can be broken down into specific factors, such as accuracy, timeliness and clarity. The study also finds that in the digital age, several new factors largely unexamined before—such as the intrusiveness of ads, navigability, load times and having the latest details—also are critical in determining whether consumers consider a publisher competent and worthy of trust.
Media Insight Project. (2016). What makes people trust news? Arlington, VA: American Press Institute. 
https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/publications/reports/survey-research/trust-news/

Elending background paper

The publishing industry has firmly embraced making the vast majority of their titles available for elending to libraries in the United States. The Big Five have either initiated a major pilot project or have committed themselves to a broad rollout. With all of the news primarily focused on the US, what does the landscape look like for the rest of the world? A new research report addresses some of these queries.
IFLA. (2014). Elending background paper.
http://www.ifla.org/files/assets/hq/topics/e-lending/documents/2014_ifla_elending_background_paper.pdf

Publishing for children study

Fully 55% of buyers of works that publishers designate for kids aged 12 to 17 (YA books) are 18 or older, with the largest segment aged 30 to 44. Accounting for 28% of sales, these adults aren’t just purchasing for others—when asked about the intended recipient, they report that 78% of the time they are purchasing books for their own reading. The insights are courtesy of  a biannual study from Bowker Market Research that explores the changing nature of publishing for kids.
Bowker. (2012). Understanding the Children’s Book Consumer in the Digital Age. New York: Bowker.

http://www.bowker.com/en-US/aboutus/press_room/2012/pr_09132012.shtml

Research speed surveys

Educators need faster ways to find the resources they are looking for and resource providers want better discoverability on the Internet, according to results from recent surveys.
Of the educators surveyed, more than 7 in 10 (72.6%) said they search for instructional resources on the Internet at least several times a week, with 25.8% stating they search daily. Sixty-six percent of educators said they get many “irrelevant results” and 9 in 10 said they would be more satisfied with Internet searches if search engines offered the ability to filter results by standard instructional criteria such as grade level, subject area, and media type.
Nearly half (46.4%) of educational publishers and resource providers responding to the survey said they are either “dissatisfied” or “somewhat dissatisfied” with the current online visibility of their products and more than half (57.1%) stated that their customers find it “difficult” or “somewhat difficult” to find their content and products when conducting online searches. Nearly 2 in 3 publishers (65%) agreed that they would either definitely implement or be “highly likely” to implement a new standard for tagging online educational resources if discoverability would improve.
Learning Resource Metadata Initiative. (2012). Improving online search for education.
http://www.lrmi.net/survey-results-show-need-for-more-targeted-results-when-searching-online-for-learning-resources