The e-book or paper book debate
SUPERIOR - Young children and even older adults have started migrating to many electronic forms of reading texts, which has caught the attention of school and library professionals.
It is possible that readers may need to adapt or continue reading with traditional texts in order to comprehend e-books, according to Jordan and Heather Schugar, researchers at West Chester University of Pennsylvania.
“It seems we’ll always have people who prefer to hold books in their hands, but we are getting an increasing number of people who like to choose between print and digital books depending on where they will be reading,” said Guna Chaberek, director of the Mineral County Public Library.
The Schugars also researched how eighth-grade students understood information from science and social studies books and e-books. However, Superior Public School
Superintendent Scott Kinney said the schools here in town aren’t using e-books too much as of yet and hasn’t noticed anything about student behavior.
“Our school information system called Lumen Touch does have a e-book library collection and is something that we may utilize in the future,” Kinney said. “Currently our print collection is doing the job.”
Researchers also found students reading digitally had a hard time finding answers to questions within the text they were reading, and attempted to use the Internet instead to find the answers.
Chaberek said people in Mineral County were thankful the library does in fact have an e-book collection after last summer when the ceiling collapsed and the library was closed for several months.
“It is, after all, our job to connect people with the information, books or other materials, that they may want,” Chaberek said.
Chaberek also said that it’s a good thing that libraries can continue to offer patrons what they are looking for, whether or not that includes e-books.
“We have a program called MontanaLibrary2Go, where people can connect and find books they want to read, or audiobooks to listen to on their tablets or even phones,” Chaberek said.
By observation, Chaberek believes there has been an increase in people who are interested in accessing library materials than in the past, because people are becoming interested in receiving content across any electronic platform and even the traditional ways like print.
“More and more people are taking advantage of electronic resources each month,” Chaberek said. “All people need is a Mineral County Public Library card and a tablet.”
Because of the increase in resources at people’s fingertips, more of the public will likely find ways to read in the future instead of past traditional media options. Although the bookstore itself may be a thing of the past, the amount of content that is divulged each day will continue to rise if public libraries offer content to area communities, only at a price of a library card.
The only thing restricting libraries from offering new, and available content may be the amount of funding that is received, most of which has been decreased at the state level.
Until then, librarians like Chaberek can expect an uptick in community interest.