News by WebKnowHow

Springer Launches eBook Program; More than 10,000 eBook Titles Now Available Via Relaunched SpringerLink Online Platform

WebKnowHow
Thursday, June 29, 2006; 07:00 AM

In a move that promises to accelerate the acceptance of eBooks and electronic publishing, Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com), a science, technology and medical book publisher, launched a new eBook initiative that will allow students and researchers electronic access to more than 10,000 books.

Springer unveiled its new eBooks program at the American Library Association's annual conference in New Orleans this week. As part of its eBooks program, Springer has relaunched its online platform, SpringerLink (www.springerlink.com). The site now integrates Springer eBooks with millions of articles from Springer's peer-reviewed journals. This integration gives researchers easy access to book chapters which should lead to more academic citations of Springer's books.

"Our new eBooks integrate seamlessly into the new SpringerLink, making it possible for users to easily search through journal articles and eBooks," said Peter Hendriks, President Global Sales and Marketing, Springer. "With the ease of accessing eBooks, we will see greater usage of the many thousands of books that Springer publishes every year. Since users can find a specific book or chapter with only one click, libraries will see more and more of their patrons accessing the rich amount of information that Springer offers. In addition, we are convinced that academic citations of Springer's books will increase now that researchers can find relevant book chapters as easily as a recent journal article."

Springer will allow unlimited simultaneous access to eBooks. The eBooks' PDF and HTML documents are fully searchable and can be downloaded and printed. In addition, once a library purchases Springer's eBook collection, they own the book content for their use in perpetuity.

Libraries can purchase a complete collection of all Springer titles from a copyright year or they can choose to purchase one or more of 12 distinct topic categories (e.g., engineering, medicine, computer science, mathematics, etc.). Approximately 3,000 new eBooks will be published and available every year.

"With the new SpringerLink, our site and the new eBook content is fully search engine compliant. If someone searches for information via a commonly used search engine such as Google, MSN, Yahoo, our content will be included in the search results," said Olaf Ernst, Global Director of eBooks at Springer. "If a searcher's university or corporate library has purchased our eBooks, they'll be able to easily access the content. In addition, consumers can buy single eBooks via our distribution partners."

For librarians, Springer's new eBooks program will link to the Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC), an instructional tool that enables students to quickly search a library's catalog from a computer station either in the library, or from an off-site computer. In addition, Springer's eBooks will give librarians easy access to the thousands of books Springer publishes every year.