Usage of E-books During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study of Kyushu University Library, Japan

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on education and research in universities throughout the world. Many academic libraries have been closed, and users have had to use e-books instead of printed books in libraries. As e-books are not yet commonly used in Japan, this paper examines the impact of the pandemic on the use of e-books in academic libraries in Japan. As a case study, the usage data for each e-book platform in Kyushu University in Japan were analyzed, and the overall trends in each period before and during the pandemic were revealed. The access counts of e-books from January to June 2019 and those for 2020 were examined. The number of total access counts in 2020 was higher than that in 2019 on all nine platforms. The platform that saw the highest access count growth rate was JSTOR, with an 846% increase. The usage of e-books in the Maruzen eBook Library, which holds many Japanese textbooks, was examined in detail. E-books on mathematics, medical science, and programming languages were in constant use both before and during the pandemic. E-books in law and economics started to be used during the pandemic. These results indicate that the pandemic has evoked new needs for e-books in certain fields.