When was the last time you walked into a library to borrow a book? Probably hasn’t been too recent. It seems as if more and more things that are originally hardcopy and physical, are turning into digital and electronic. The things that are going the fastest are books, newspapers, journals, and magazines. Most to all of these can now be accessed online, and for free!
First, let’s focus on books for school. Textbooks haven’t quite made the complete switch to digital yet. However, it is definitely getting there. Textbooks have always been a hassle. From being too heavy and damaging students back, to being way too expensive and being outdated way too fast. Imagine only a few years from, books that are basically weightless, with costs half as what they used to be due to the lessened materials used to produce them, and a way to have them electronically updates whenever a new version comes out. For students and teachers, this would be wonderful, and I believe it is definitely in reach.
Then, you can think about books you read for fun. For those of you who like to read, it must be a hassle carrying around that book all the time, and worrying about it getting damaged. Furthermore, if you want to read more than one at a certain sitting, there’s just going to be more to carry. Recently, the Kindle revolution has started. Now, you can purchase your books online and they are instantly transferred to you Kindle device. There you can read one to many books, and take it everywhere with you; completely portable and convenient. Now, this kind of application can be downloaded for any type of device from phones to iPods and iPads.
Continuing on that idea, applications have been built for multiple print sources such as magazines and newspapers. Just like the books, reading them through your electronic device is so much easier, convenient and portable. With these new technologies emerging, who will ever want to go back to having these products in print; bulky, and eventually turning into waste? In a way, technology could be saving our environment.
And lastly, journals, not something you need on an everyday basis, but for students, very important when doing research papers. These have been electronic for a while, and what a relief that they are. There are so many types of different journals and so many editions and volumes of them as well. The main advantage to having them online is because you can easily sort through them and search for exactly what you need. What a hassle it would be if you have to go through hundreds of journal articles just to find some simple answer.
My point is, most print sources are turning electronic. With this happening, what is going to happen to our libraries? Will they have to change their function? In that case, wouldn’t it just be considered some sort of Internet café? It’s hard to believe that something that we all grew up knowing may encounter a huge change. Libraries will no longer be known as that building with all the books and resources, but instead that site where I can search for books and resources.UPDATE(3/15): I was reading some of the news today and came across this article
http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/nyt/20110315_Publishers_and_libraries_struggle_over_terms_of_e-books.html
Hi Lauren. I really enjoy reading your thoughts, and I completely agree with you! After signing up for classes the other day, I went to scu.edu/bookstore to check out book prices for spring quarter. For some of my books, I noticed that I can purchase a “nook study” where I can either buy or rent an eTextbook. It surprised me because I don’t recall seeing that option when I first started at SCU. I, too, depend upon electronic sources, and I use our library website for many different resources, from finding books to reading online journals. Really though…do people even remember using a card catalog as opposed to typing in key words in a search bar in order to find a book?
ReplyDeleteThanks! I recently came upon the school's e-textbook thing too. I'm not so sure though when they had started using it, but most likely a high amount of textbooks will have that option soon.
ReplyDeleteNow that you mention it, I can't remember the last time I picked up a newspaper or borrowed a book from a library. I agree that there is a trend toward converting sources such as magazines, newspapers, journals, etc. into electronic format. In my opinion, this is a good thing. Like you said, it is much more convenient to enter a few words into a search engine than to manually shuffle through hundreds of pages when you are trying to find some information. Great Post!
ReplyDeleteI think a problem that may arise from converting books into digital format is comprehension. The efficiency benefits are obvious, but the overall action of finding what you want and taking it may harm overall learning. Students may use the search tool to find keywords to answer questions on an assignment. This may lead to lack of knowledge since the information is not read in its full context.
ReplyDeleteI found this very interesting considering its true haha. I feel that there will be a point were libraries will become unnecessary. I believe that all the books will end up being archived online and therefor libraries will not exist. It is sad but true we are already beginning to see trends of librarians losing there jobs so it is only a matter of time before libraries are gone.
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