Springer celebrates its 50,000th eBook, available on its online platform SpringerLink (www.springerlink.com). This milestone underscores Springer’s position as the largest eBook publisher and emphasizes SpringerLink’s dominance in offering the world’s most comprehensive online collection of science, technology and medicine (STM) journals, books and reference works.

In addition, as announced in October 2011, Springer will digitize nearly all books it has published since 1842. By adding the Springer Book Archives to SpringerLink by the end of 2012, the total number of titles will increase to well over 100,000 eBooks, including valuable historic research dating back to the 1840s.

Wouter van der Velde, eProduct Manager for eBooks at Springer, said, “This is a major milestone for Springer. Our eBook collections are widely used by researchers throughout the world. The high usage clearly shows that Springer is on the right track by providing researchers with quality content.”

Springer launched its eBook collection in 2006. For the fifth anniversary, the publishing house consulted leading librarians across the academic, corporate and government sectors to gain their perspective on the past, present and future of the eBook revolution.

Springer collected the best practices about library implementation, business models and the paper-to-electronic transition, and included these insights in a far-reaching white paper. This paper — written for librarian, publisher and aggregator audiences — explores the shared challenges and opportunities that eBooks present to key stakeholders. The white paper is now available on www.springer.com/ebooks and can also be picked up at the Springer booth at the ALA 2012 Midwinter Meeting in Dallas.*

Ray Colón, Director of eProduct Management at Springer, said: “Springer is fortunate to have a smart, forward-thinking library advisory community. Five years after we introduced the first STM eBooks offering, we wanted to get their take on how eBooks have changed the landscape and what challenges and opportunities lie ahead for all of us. We hope this white paper is part of the dialogue that moves us forward together over the next five years and beyond.”

Springer eBooks’ PDF and HTML documents are fully searchable, free of Digital Rights Management and can be downloaded, printed, and also loaded onto mobile devices such as tablets and mobile phones. In addition, once a library purchases Springer’s eBook Collection, they own the book content for their use in perpetuity. The Springer eBook Collection provides MARC 21 records, free of charge. In addition, OCLC MARC records for Springer eBooks are available free of charge to eBook customers.

Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) is a leading global scientific publisher, delivering quality content through innovative information products and services. The company is also a trusted provider of local-language professional publications in Europe, especially in Germany and the Netherlands. In the science, technology and medicine (STM) sector, the group publishes around 2,000 journals and more than 7,000 new books a year, as well as the largest STM eBook Collection worldwide. Springer has operations in about 20 countries in Europe, the USA, and Asia, and more than 5,500 employees. In 2010, it generated annual sales of around EUR 866 million.

Contact: Renate Bayaz, renate.bayaz@springer.com, +49-171-8668118
*American Library Association (ALA) 2012 Midwinter Meeting, Dallas, TX: January 20–24, 2012,
Booth 2039