The future of eBooks Will print disappear An enduser perspective

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to find out whether eBooks are cannibalizing print books, as well as an assessment of factors that are influencing eBook usage. Ebooks are a hot topic. Traditional book publishing, especially in the academic world, is changing at a rapid pace. The question on everybody's mind is what direction book publishing will take Will print survive in the Googlegeneration, or is it destined to be totally replaced by eBooks Springer publishes over 4,000 book titles annually, which are converted into eBooks almost without exception. Being the market leader and innovator of a new business model in electronic books in the STM area, Springer has conducted a study on the implications of the Springer eBook collection in comparison to its print book activities. Designmethodologyapproach The study is based on interviews with both endusers and librarians. In addition, Springer has assessed the COUNTERcompliant usage statistics from SpringerLink. Findings Overall, Springer's eBook usage is already 50 percent of its journal usage, while the amount of content compared with journals is only 15 percent. Taking this success of eBook usage into account, Springer still believes strongly in the print model, and has recently launched MyCopy heavily discounted printondemand books from the electronic versions. Originalityvalue The study shows that print and electronic can exist together, and will complement each other's strengths.