This paper presents the results of a large scale survey designed to investigate usage patterns and library patron attitudes toward e-books. The survey reveals a university community's discovery and knowledge of e-books, their likes and dislikes about book content in electronic format as opposed to print, and their predictions of how they will use electronic and print book materials in the future. The survey shows that acceptance of ebooks has reached a level where they have become an important library service. The results, based on a study conducted in collaboration with Springer, break down e-book awareness and attitudes into faculty, graduate student, and undergraduate student constituent groups. Additionally, statistics are presented to complement the survey results by showing that the usage of e-book content at the University of Illinois is increasing at a rapid pace. 1 E-books are, without question, an exciting and controversial topic for librarians, publishers, and users. Today libraries and publishers are finally coming to terms with the fact that a tipping point on e-books might be reached faster than either party ever imagined. After a disappointing beginning and a quiet time in between, in the last few years a rebirth has occurred with new products and services for libraries offering robust access models and presentation options. Some of these access and presentation models are strikingly similar to those of e-journals or involve products framed around e-book content especially suited to this format, such as manuals or reference works. In addition, personal readers from Sony and Amazon are now experiencing a measurable degree of acceptance and commercial success, and this has certainly caught the attention of the business and popular press. [2,16,18]. Libraries are actively involved in a resurgence of e-book licensing from both born aggregators as well as traditionally print based book vendors, and many publishers are either currently offering or near launching e-book products for both libraries and end users. There is also an increased interest in e-books and e-textbooks within academia as an answer to rising print materials costs and for their convenience of use [17]. Finally, in addition to the spike in activities in the traditional publishing market, libraries are on the verge of truly finding out how the Google Book project will add to and shape this new place both inside and outside of libraries [7].In
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