By Tristan Dunn
Jacobs said that she only reads e-books for a class such
as a textbook and she doesn’t mind spending for buying a print book and she
only purchases short e-book titles.
People like Jacobs, whether they are book worms, readers,
writers, and researchers are still arguing over which book medium is superior:
old fashioned printed or electronic.
However, e-books are gaining more attention. According to
a report by Author Earnings, a website that shares information between writers
and the publishing industry, e-books have sold more copies than print.
The
report said that in unit sales from Amazon.com and BookScan have e-books making
up 61 percent of all sales, while print books make up only 39 percent of sales.
Despite selling more copies than print books, e-books are not making the same
amount of money as their competitor. The Author Earnings report says that print
makes 70 percent of all earnings and e-books makes only 30 percent of all
earnings.
The reason why e-books dominate unit sales but fall in
the profit margins is because e-books are sold at a cheaper price than print
books. Print books require the physical materials to be read by the consumer
and for that reason the price for a printed book is much higher.
Liz Chase, a librarian at the MacPhaidan Library on
Stonehill College’s campus, said that the library started to add e-books to its
collection in the late 1990s. A reference librarian teaches sessions to
students and faculty about using the library’s resources. A reference librarian
also maintain and add to the collection of books in the library’s collection.
Chase said that the library, in 2015, had 56,000 printed
book titles and had access to 300,000 e-book titles. However, Chase said that
students use printed sources more often than e-books. Chase said that only
about 50,000 e-book pages were used in the last year.
Chase said that she believes print books are more popular
at the library because they contain more diverse content on a subject that
students can use for their research papers. Chase also believes that students
enjoy having a physical copy of their source in their hands.
Chase
said that the library is given a budget from Stonehill College, which is used
to purchase books and maintain databases. The goal is to purchase titles and
books that students and faculty will use in their research and in their work.
To succeed in this goal, Chase said that the library uses a system called
demand driven acquisition.
Demand driven acquisition, or DDA, allows the library to
have access to e-books and only pay for them when a user opens the pages of
said book. Chase said that DDA also recommends and purchases books based on the
popularity in the consumers.
Chase said the library expanded to include e-books
because they are specific and e-books are multi-user. The library finds
multi-user sources valuable because it allows anyone to access the information
at any time and any place.
Jacobs’s
biggest worry of e-books is that she is afraid that e-books will ruin the
publishing industry. Jacobs said however that e-books are useful for
highlighting text, while not ruining the book. Jacobs is not the only Stonehill
student who supports printed books over e-books.
Zac
Oudin agrees with Jacobs and said that he enjoys having a physical book in his
hand instead of reading off a screen. Oudin says that he like the smell of the
book, new or old. In contrast to Jacobs, Oudin enjoys going to the library and finding
books for recessional reading and research.
Rachael Feldhousen prefers printed books because they are
much easier to read. Feldhousen said that she finds reading off a screen to be
harder and more irritating to her eyes. However, Feldhousen said she
understands that e-books are more efficient, but she is sad to see a movement
away from print.
Megan Romprey enjoys having a printed book when reading
because she likes to write and annotate in the margins. Romprey said that it is
useful for classes. Romprey also said that she understands the concept of
e-books, but they do not appeal to her and she only reads them when required.
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