2018 Charleston Library Conference

The information industry has been exploring business models for digital information products, but it was not until the recent years that the new access model, especially subscription-based services, became popular. Thanks to the advancement of streaming technology, online advertisement, and DRM technology, information providers were able to design various pricing schemes and provide various services for users with different needs. Consumers seem to favor these services increasingly, but some questions remain: Is there a significant shift in users’ general preferences for all media content? Do they prefer any particular models under specific circumstances? What factors are related to users’ preferences? This presentation will report the results of two studies on consumers’ preferences for eBook, digital music, and digital movies. One study focused on general users, using a sample of 304 participants aged between 22 and 75, and the other focused on the “generation Z”, using a sample of 323 college students aged between 18 and 21. The two studies investigated consumers’ notion of ownership, the perceived importance of owning information products, their preferences for obtaining different types of media content, their subscription and cancellation behaviors, and the perceived importance of a range of different features of information products and subscription services.
Attendees of the session can expect to learn about a range of user-related issues. For example, how are users’ preferences for obtaining media content differ by age, gender, and education level? Do users still borrow from libraries? What features or rights do users consider important or not important? These issues are interesting to multiple audiences: academic and public librarians can understand their users better and learn new ways of serving users and promoting their e-resources; and publishers and vendors can gain a better knowledge of their end users, which may help them design, develop, and produce information products.