The development of digital books launched a number of discussions and deliberations in recent years, with an emphasis on reading habits and the impact of mass digitization, especially in the domain of library community. Digital books are available in various formats, including a variety of media, and are delivered on different devices. The dominance of the digital book is most strongly expressed in the United States, while in Croatia the usage of digital books is still not as widespread. Academic environment and college libraries in Croatia follow up on the changes in the digital publishing and bookselling. The focus of this paper is to explore the use of digital books in an academic environment.$ The research includes teachers and students of the University of Zadar, with the aim of documenting their recognition of the importance and benefits, as well as different ways of using digital books. A questionnaire containing open and closed questions was used for the study. The participants were a total of 177. It was found that participants use digital books and recognize their strengths, but prefer the print version of the book. Participants most commonly use digital books in the public domain or off the illegal web sites, and have poor knowledge of copyright laws. A big problem in the use of the digital book is the price of electronic devices and their inaccessibility on the Croatian market. Participants highlighted the problem of too many formats, without the adopted standards. Digital content which is offered to them through e­learning systems is considered very useful by the majority of participants. Digital books would be used more if they were offered by libraries, with more diverse content and topics, and available e­readers at hand.