Introduction: By applying the visitor and resident framework on e-book usage, the article explores whether the concepts of a resident and a visitor can help to explain e-book use, and can help to gain a better insight into users' motivations for e-book use. Method: A questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were conducted with users of the Social Science Faculty Library, at the University of Copenhagen. Analysis: The empirical data were discussed on the basis of a modified e-book visitor and resident framework. Conclusion: The results showed that the framework can be applied to an e-book context and that it helped to investigate users' behaviour in a new light and to understand better some of the difficulties users meet when they interact with e-books. It is unclear how much the framework can be used to predict user's behaviour in relation to e-books and can ultimately prognoses usage trends.