Embracing change: perceptions of e‐journals by faculty members

This paper synthesizes the findings from the qualitative portions of two studies (conducted in 2005 and 2008) that assessed the activities and attitudes of faculty members in several US universities, regarding their interactions with scholarly materials, and their scholarly reading patterns. The systematic interpretation of their comments and descriptions of their own experiences and opinions offers an image of scholars who enthusiastically embrace the electronic information environment, in spite of some frustrations with its imperfections. Their use of e‐journals, Internet resources, and email communication has become indispensable to their scholarly activities, and has profoundly changed the way they interact with information, create new knowledge, and relate to their university library. For these faculty members, e‐journals have supplanted the print format, because of their convenience, flexibility of work location, advantages for interdisciplinary access, and ease of storage.