Preference for electronic format of scientific journals - A case study of the Science Library users at the Hebrew University

The article reports the results of a survey on the use of printed and electronic journals in a science library. In May 2003, when the survey was conducted, users had already been exposed to electronic journals for a number of years, most of the scientific journals were accessible in electronic format while the print format was still available. The major findings are that more than 80% of the respondents frequently use and prefer an electronic format, irrespective of their rank or age. Most previous studies found an inverse relationship between e-journal usage and age, but these results indicate that by now users of all ages switched to the electronic format not only in terms of usage but of preference as well. (c) 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.