The eBook Phenomenon

Source: images.dailytech.com

 

According to Gray (2013), the number of old-fashioned books borrowed from libraries has gone down by almost 13 million to 287.5 million in the last year. The number of e-books that are taken out of libraries has more than doubled to 563,000 in 2011/12. According to ‘Fifty Shades of Grey boosts book trade’, eBooks are just a new custom and they are not replacing physical book sales. Popular fictions such as Fifty Shades of Grey and The Hunger Games have significantly contributed to the large increase in eBooks sales. Ebooks for non-fiction and reference books have also increased by 95% in 2012. In my opinion, it is possible that eBooks will take over printed sales in the near future.

EBooks provide many advantages to readers. Firstly, eBooks allow mobile and convenient reading (Snowhill 2001). The eBooks are convenient because readers would be able to read them anywhere and at anytime. Readers can optimize their reading time as they can read from any of the portable devices (Lam et al 2008). Users can search a book store, buy a book and even start reading within a few minutes. Furthermore, eBooks are considerably cheaper than the physical books. The cost of papers and cover is eliminated. Besides that, an eBook device allows the user to carry hundreds of books with them at a time, with the weight of just one (Sweet n.d.).

Moreover, there is an increasing trend in education to use real world authentic information that is available through eBook formats. Teachers and students use many eBooks as reference and textbooks nowadays. Students have constant access to educational resources and even personal reference libraries (Cavanaugh 2002). Some students tend to enjoy reading when they can connect it to technology. They also tend to read the eBooks faster when they are enjoying it.

In conclusion, eBooks will not take over the world just yet as studies have shown that people may feel that it is too tiring to read long texts on a small computer screen. In order for the eBooks market to be sustainable, a considerable development of standards and technologies are needed (Lam et al 2008). After all these developments, eBooks will most probably take over the printed book sales in the future.

References

Cavanaugh, T 2002, ‘EBooks and accommodations: is this the future of print accommodation?’, Teaching Exceptional Children, vol. 35, no.2, pp.56-61

Flood, A 2013, ‘Fifty shades of grey boosts book trade’, The Guardian, posted 1 May, viewed 7 November 2013, <http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/may/01/fifty-shades-of-grey-boosts-book-trade>

 

Gray, L 2013, ‘Is it the end of the book as libraries close and e-books take over?’, The Telegraph, posted 8 February, viewed 6 November 2013, <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/9855941/Is-it-the-end-of-the-book-as-libraries-close-and-e-books-take-over.html>

Lam, P, Lam SL, Lam, J and McNaught, C 2009, ‘Usability and usefulness of eBooks on PPCs: How students’ opinions vary over time’, Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 30-44, viewed 6 November 2013, <http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet25/lam.html>

Snowhill, L 2001, ‘E-books and their future in academic libraries’, D-Lib Magazine, vol. 7, no. 7/8, viewed 6 November 2013, <http://mirrored.ukoln.ac.uk/lis-journals/dlib/dlib/dlib/july01/snowhill/07snowhill.html>

Sweet, N n.d., ‘Are e-books taking over the printed world?’, Teen Ink, viewed 6 November 2013, <http://teenink.com/opinion/current_events_politics/article/211256/Are-E-books-Taking-Over-the-Printed-World/>