After using their e-books for a semester, student poll respondents in my course were asked whether they had ever made use of the four features just mentioned. It is interesting to note that both sets of data showed the same relative importance of the listed features. The ability to look up words in the built-in dictionary, which the previous survey found to be the most desired of the four features, was also found to be most used of the listed features in the present study. It is worth noting, however, that several students expressed dissatisfaction with the included general purpose dictionary because it did not have many scientific terms. The ability to augment the standard dictionary with terms relevant to a particular course would be a highly useful feature for future versions of e-books.
Electronic book features, their reported importance and actual usage.
The ability to annotate, the least important of the four features in the Kent State study, was found to be the least used feature by the Fordham participants. 2 lists responses received to questions designed to gauge the student users' satisfaction with the e-book experience. Responses received from 19 study participants to questions concerning their satisfaction with and perceived value of using an e-book for one semester. 84 Table 2 also lists two questions designed to measure the perceived value of the e-book experience. The final question listed in Table 2 tested whether students valued the e-book experience enough to pay for it.