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While there are frequently quoted articles about the revenue in e‐books over the last two years there is no regular statistical information about the amount of e‐books being published. This article attempts to fill this gap.

The paper states the total number of commercially available English‐speaking e‐books in the US‐market and reviews the growth of the publishing‐activities over the last 20 years. Finally, the paper sets the growth of the publishing activities in the e‐book‐market in relation to the developments in the hardcover‐market. The data about the English‐speaking publications was obtained from the book trade directory Global Books In Print Online. The data about the German‐speaking publications was gathered from the author's own survey.

There are at least 115,000 commercial English‐speaking e‐book‐editions offered in the US‐market. There is an increase of an average of 20 per cent a year in the production of e‐books over the last 20 years. In relation to the total amount of hardcover‐editions the total number of e‐book‐titles run up to 9 per cent. In comparison to Germany the USA is at the forefront of the e‐book‐market. About 5,000 German‐speaking e‐book‐titles were published, which runs up to 1 per cent of the total amount of hardcover editions.

The low number of e‐books published is one of the central problems of the e‐book‐market. As there is no other data available yet this article provides the reader with the information needed to assess the situation.

The purpose of this paper is to determine whether a sufficient number of e‐books is available in science streams from different publishers to satisfy the need of an academic library to develop an e‐book collection based on its collection development policy. This study aims to identify e‐book equivalents for print books acquired by Central Science Library, University of Delhi.

This study provides the in‐depth quantitative analysis according to title‐by‐title selection of e‐books from various international publishers compared to the recommended books for different science courses of the University of Delhi. The study was conducted following that of Price and McDonald which shows that around 30 per cent of print books have e‐book equivalents. The data collected were analyzed by using a simple method of calculation and percentages were calculated to interpret the results of the study.

The results show that only about 17per cent of print books have e‐book equivalents available from different publishers, fulfilling only 9‐15 per cent of the requirements of most of the courses – something that does not match the library's collection development policy.

The present study is based on the books recommended in the curriculum of different science courses of the University of Delhi for the academic year 2009‐2010. According to subject‐wise distribution of e‐books variation of about 2 per cent in the findings occurred, as some books are mentioned in the curriculum of more than one course. This study provides some constructive suggestions which may help librarians to explore ways to spend the budget for collection development of e‐books in a more appropriate way.

As this paper is based on in‐depth quantitative analysis of availability of e‐books according to need of a particular academic library, generalization about availability of e‐books cannot be made. However, it contributes to trace the growth of e‐books and suggests some alternatives to develop e‐book collection. Further studies can be done for different library settings to find out their need for and availability of e‐books.

Standards are being developed in five primary areas of e‐book development: e‐book formats, digital audio formats, digital rights management languages, digital rights management systems, and distribution and promotion. Each of these standards has technological, economic and social aspects. This article describes some key e‐books standards and discusses how these aspects are shaping the emerging e‐book products.

The purpose of this study is to understand how to improve librarians’ skills, using an active and reflective participative process, to develop a university e-book service. This research involved librarians who could not participate in a formal learning course and explored the possibility of improving their skills with e-books by means of informal and non-formal learning.

Using a qualitative methodology framework, the research was a participatory action research (PAR) study, utilizing a recurrent five-phase cycle – analysis, plan, action, evaluation, reflection/sharing – that joins research and reflective practice in action. Each phase has been discussed by categories defined from the gathered data, highlighting the evidence of participants’ contributions, to analyse the situation, plan and carry out interventions, and evaluate outcomes. Participants suggested and put into action informal and non-formal methods of learning to develop e-book skills that they named and included in broader categories such as technical, content selection, purchase and management and use.

Participants increased their awareness of the topic, and the PAR process also contributed to their personal development. PAR is recommended as a research process that fosters learning outcomes, as well as personal and professional development.

PAR has been applied in the Italian academic setting to understand how librarians can develop skills in e-book services through informal and non-formal learning methods.

This paper aims to propose a definition for the concept “e‐book” on the basis of an analysis of existing definitions. The e‐book marketplace is growing rapidly and the potential impact of e‐books on publishers, librarian and users is increasing in significance. Yet, there is agreement that despite a few widely accepted definitions there is no consensus on the definition of the term e‐book, and, further that consensus on the definition would be beneficial for both researchers and practitioners.

This paper starts with a brief overview of the developments in e‐books, covering technologies, marketplaces, and the attractions and challenges associated with e‐books for users and libraries. It then reports on a content analysis of existing definitions of e‐book. A collection of definitions was compiled through an exhaustive literature review. Content analysis was performed to identify the frequency of occurrence of key words and phrases across these definitions.

There is a consensus that definitions of e‐book should include reference to: the digital or electronic nature of e‐books, analogy to printed book, some indication of the content of e‐books, and some allusion to e‐book technologies. We propose a two‐part definition that embraces these themes, but also reflects the in‐use features of the e‐book. Conclusions and recommendations make proposals for further discussion on the concept of e‐book and, more widely, into the publication, acquisition and use of e‐books.

In the rapidly developing e‐book marketplace it is essential to have agreement on the definition of e‐book, and furthermore, such a definition needs to reflect both the persistent characteristics of e‐books, and their dynamic and developing nature.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the collection development practices regarding e-books among librarians who manage French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish (Romance) materials. The authors aim to describe factors that influence acquisition of e-books for Romance language collections to confirm librarians’ perception that humanities researchers prefer print and library administrators’ attitudes toward e-books.

This study collected data using a mixed-method approach of a survey and focus groups.

This study confirms that user preference is the primary consideration of Romance librarians in selecting e-books. Contrary to librarians’ perceptions, this study found that humanities faculty and students are not averse to using e-books for specific purposes such as searching, targeted reading and course materials. While restrictions on lending e-books are a concern, Romance librarians are focused primarily on serving the needs of their core constituencies.

The practice of adding call numbers to individual e-books varies among institutions. Individual e-book titles in large packages do not necessarily get added to the catalog, thus making it very difficult to compare e-book collections between institutions.

This study endeavors to unify the anecdotal narratives and factors that influence the acquisition of e-books by Romance librarians.

This paper provides an analysis of the current state‐of‐the‐art in e‐books, and attempts both to set the scene and provide reasons for their low uptake.

The different approaches to e‐books of academic librarians, authors, publishers and readers are considered, using the results of a recent survey commissioned by the Joint Information Systems Committee.

The findings of this study make it clear that those who know about e‐books see them as potentially useful tools. However, a number of users of ICT resources are still unaware of e‐books even when their academic libraries' e‐book holdings is high. The lack of promotion from within the university, particularly from the academics, and to a certain extent from the librarians, is indeed a major reason for this knowledge gap.

Publishers, e‐book providers and aggregators, academics and intermediaries (i.e. librarians and information specialists) should concentrate on raising awareness of what is available and what are the advantages related to e‐books for specific categories of users. At the same time e‐book suppliers should make e‐books easier to find and purchase. Crucially, both the research and commercial development communities have to address these major issues: definition of common bench marks for research to progress; user‐centred design as a paradigm; better and stronger links with all stakeholders.

This paper offers a stepping stone for all parties interested in moving forwards to achieve this common goal.

The continued presence of electronic books or e‐books has significantly affected the publishing industry in recent years. The growing popularity of the Web and public acceptance of new e‐book technologies is facilitating their spread. However, initial optimism about the growth of the medium has been tempered by a measured uptake of the medium and the withdrawal of some e‐books products from the market. This paper attempts to update the position with e‐books and provide an overview of e‐book technologies by defining types of e‐books, listing their implementations, their advantages and disadvantages, hardware, software, management software and their future. The paper concludes that the success or failure of e‐books depends not only on acceptance by users but also on the publishing industry's ability to see beyond traditional business models. The e‐book readers are still in early stages of development but the hope is that common industry standards will soon be adopted and the medium will reach its full potential.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the e‐book marketplace players and their services against a context in which e‐books are becoming an increasingly significant category of digital resource.

The paper starts with a brief overview of the literature on the global e‐book market and e‐book business models offered by vendors to libraries. Analysis of the web sites of nine e‐book publishers and 11 e‐book aggregators was used as a basis for profiling the main features of e‐books (user‐oriented features and librarian‐ oriented features) and the services offered by e‐book publishers and e‐book aggregators. Key points from these profiles are discussed, and conclusions and recommendations for the future of the e‐book marketplace are offered.

The e‐book market is under constant change and it is important to monitor its development, not just at national but also at international level. Currently, the majority of e‐book vendors market to libraries – typically academic libraries, and publishers are increasingly using e‐aggregators to distribute their titles. Collections of e‐books are expanding gradually and there is evidence of increasing uptake. Current e‐book business models are complex and range considerably.

This development of the availability of e‐books could have significant implications for the future role of libraries and for library strategies, policies and processes.

The paper draws attention to the potential of the future importance of e‐books and profiles the uptake of the e‐book marketplace in terms of main players and their services.

The purpose of this study was to explore the level of awareness, use and attitudes of students regarding e-books.

This study used a quantitative research design based on the survey method. A structured questionnaire was designed and used for data collection from four different universities of Pakistan. A total of 305 responses were collected from a sample of 400, and 303 of those responses were used for data analysis.

The results of this study indicated that students were aware of e-books and used them in their daily lives. Most of the respondents had a positive attitude towards e-books and indicated that they considered e-books are easy to find and support them in their assignments. Online features of e-books were important to them. There was a significant difference of opinion found among students of different disciplines regarding the use of e-books.

This study was limited to four disciplines in four universities, one discipline per university. Therefore, its findings may not be applied to other universities or other disciplines.

This paper offers a new idea to academic libraries related to purchasing e-books. This study will provide guidelines to information professionals for development of their e-book collection and implementation of innovative approaches in library services or e-books services to facilitate their users according to their need.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study on the level of awareness, use and attitudes of university students towards e-books in Pakistan.