Visualizing Subjective Mapping in the Field of E-book Publishing in the Context of Users and Librarians

The present paper reports the findings of a research which aimed to visualize subjective mappingof e-books in the context of users and libraries. The research is a kind of scientometrics studiesvia qualitative content analysis method. Node XL software was used to visualize the map. Theresearch community included all papers in the subjective field of e-books in the context ofusers and libraries which were published in the journals indexed in the EBSCO database during2005-2011. Results show that subjects of e-books (general), e-book readers and electronictextbook are the most important subjects which are allocated mental disturbances related tousers through the papers. Moreover, in the field of e-textbooks the strongest subjectiveconnections are related to students and usages. Moreover, students and children are as themost important stratum. Furthermore, survey on the usage rate of e-books and analysis statisticsof their usage are as the most significant discussions that are considered from library-related approach. Additionally, the current situation of e-books in public and academic libraries isaccentuated by researchers as another predominant subject. Visualizing subjective mappingincluding the mentioned contexts is not revealed by previous studies. Hence, it is included anovel contribution.