Reserves, Electronic Reserves and Student Copying Practices at the University of Colorado, Boulder: Is Digital Different?

When electronic reserves emerged in the 1990s, publishers maintained, "Digital is different." Publishers reasoned that students were more likely to copy electronic files than paper files and more likely to distribute electronic copies to others via the Internet. This paper reports the results of a survey of 925 students at the University of Colorado, Boulder. The authors found that there was little difference between student copying practices of reserves in electronic and paper formats. The authors also found that students rarely transmitted copies in either format to other individuals outside the class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]