The article linked below was recently published by School Library Research (SLR).
Title
Exploring School Librarians’ Perceptions of Digital Books
Authors
Etienne Vallée, Doctoral Student Department of Educational Technology, Boise State University
Jesús Trespalacios, Department of Educational Technology, Boise State University
Source
School Library Research (SLR)
Volume 29, 2026
Abstract
Digital books have been available for decades, but many school librarians have been reluctant to expand their digital collection holdings (ebooks and audiobooks) for several reasons. Over the past two decades, research on the acceptance of digital books has mainly focused on universities and college students. This study aims to fill a gap by examining the attitudes and specific challenges faced by school librarians in the rural state of New Hampshire (USA). This exploratory qualitative research study, centered on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), examines school librarians’ attitudes and perceptions toward the ease of use and usefulness of digital books in the school library collection. The findings reveal that while participating school librarians perceive digital books as useful and generally easy to use, technology acceptance remains highly conditional. Within this localized cohort, a school librarian’s positive attitude to champion the format is systematically bottlenecked by a lack of explicit digital reading instruction, classroom teacher skepticism, and a persistent user preference for physical print. Rather than widespread adoption, these systemic barriers relegate digital books to grudging, transactional utility in schools. Ultimately, these findings highlight the necessity of collaborative, curriculum-integrated instruction and point to the need for broader empirical research to verify these acceptance barriers on a generalizable scale.
Direct to Full Text Article (45 pages; PDF)
The post New Journal Article: “Exploring School Librarians’ Perceptions of Digital Books” appeared first on Library Journal infoDOCKET.
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