Which Will Come Out on Top: Print or Digital?
Story by Junie Kah, Jacqueline Cho, Jeffrey Kim
Edited by Junie Kah
Design by Helaine Lee
Edited by Junie Kah
Design by Helaine Lee
Choosing the books to take on a holiday, gift to friends or read to children has gotten more difficult recently. ‘What’ to read isn’t the only concern today - you also have to think of the ‘How,’ be it through an e-reader or through printed books.
Ebooks have garnered favour over the last few decades, mostly because of the rise of devices like Amazon’s Kindle. However, it is struggling to overtake the established printing industries - though ebook sales have grown more than 4456% since 2008, print books continue to dominate the literature market. Supporters of ebooks claim that it helps remove the burden from their hectic lives. The greatest upside to ebooks comes from their ease of use; thousands of books can be downloaded onto a single device and brought anywhere. Meanwhile, supporters of print literature say that print brings the reader an experience that simply cannot be found in ebooks, as well as being available even without electricity. So which format should you choose? We interviewed Ms. April Johnson, MS/HS Librarian, for her opinion. The library provides options for ebooks through FollettShelf, an online database, to complement its established catalog of printed literature. Part of the issue with exclusively using ebook tools, she says, is the fact that they are susceptible to technical issues. “The frustration, especially with international [releases], is that sometimes the app is problematic - it’s not easy.” Is the gradual rise of ebooks as a format a good thing? Some students, like Helaine Lee (8), don’t see an issue with having ebooks take over. As an avid reader on her Macbook, she says that the rising number of ebooks create a positive effect. Other students, like Kaylen Ko (8), believe otherwise. They see a problem with having physical books being phased out. Does Ms. Johnson still see physical media being rendered obsolete in the future? “Not entirely,” she says, “There are still things that are in print that are never going to be online. [...] And until they can work it out with the publishers how [copyright issues with ebooks are] going to work, I think it’ll still be easier to come in and check out a book.” Looks like the library is here to stay, for now. No matter which trend emerges triumphant in the future, however, the library’s importance as a place of learning and enlightenment is sure to remain. |
A student reads a book through the Kindle device. Kindle is provided by Amazon, the company that runs the largest online store in the world.
Photograph by Junie Kah (8) The print version of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, written by Douglas Adams.
Photograph by Junie Kah (8) Ms. April Johnson, MS/HS Librarian.
Photograph by Jeffrey Kim (8) |