Electronic or print books: Which are used?

The first SOLINET netLibrary Shared Collection duplicated numerous print books held by Louisiana State University. The library identified over 2,852 print/ebook equivalents in its catalog. Use statistics for both formats were collected monthly for a year. A t-test of the differences in the pairs' circulation found a low correlation. Ebook accesses followed the academic year. University press ebooks garnered a smaller share of accesses relative to title count than those of commercial publishers. Differences in format preference were found by subject and classification. Acquiring an ebook thus means something different for patrons than acquiring its print equivalent. (c) 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.