New York University's Student Newspaper Publishes Editorial About e-Textbooks
The editorial is titled, “College students will stick to paper books” and was published by Washington Square News today.
From the Editorial:
The benefits of these e-Textbooks include the ability to quickly search through large amounts of text, insert marginalia in electronic comment boxes and access hyperlinks. Yet the tactile quality of textbooks, something e-Books will never have, allows readers a certain intimacy with their academic material. It’s a lot easier to curl up in bed with a textbook than it is to go to bed with a hunk of heated metal by your side.
It is evident from the limited success of e-Textbooks that students are comfortable with the current order of things: we prefer to have the option of choosing between printed textbooks and e-Textbooks. Though academia’s current preferences may lean toward physical books, this preference may change with future generations. Nevertheless, it remains a vital part of our college education that students have access to their reading material in medium that they can engage with.
Filed under: Journal Articles, News, Publishing
About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.