Digital Book Blog

I feel that the presentation we had at Wallace Library, as Jon said, did bring a lot of issues to the table as to why e-books are as popular as they had anticipated. The point that I brought up during that presentation was that the readers, although small, aren't as portable as one would think. With an actual book, there are no issues as to what could happen to the book if I were to bring it to the beach or if I were to bring it on a plane. If I brought a book to the beach or on a plane I wouldn't be too concerned about it being knocked around or if I got sand or water on it. The contents will not be harmed (depending on the damage), however if I were to bring a reader to the beach or on a plane, I would be very concerned with it getting broken or ruined, which could in tern cause damage to the contents. The fact that readers are so expensive cause one to be more concerned with it's handling. If it breaks, that's over $300 down the drain. The rebuttal was that e-books are very useful in education. This may be true and I won't necessarily argue that point, other than to say that in the 4 years I have been here I haven't been asked to use an E-Book once. Now, this may change in the coming years and more professors may be inclined to use E-books which would negate my recent comment. All in all, it was a great way for us to take a look at the different issues at hand.