E-Books: The Death of Libraries

An electronic book, also known as an e-book or eBook, is a book whose publication is made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Although sometimes defined as “an electronic version of a printed book”, some e-books exist without a printed equivalent. E-books can be read on dedicated e-reader devices, but also on any computer device that features a controllable viewing screen, including desktop computers, laptops, tablets and smart phones. In the 2000s, there was a trend of print and e-book sales moving to the Internet, where readers buy traditional paper books and e-books on websites using e-commerce systems. With print books, readers are increasingly browsing through images of the covers of books on publisher or bookstore websites and selecting and ordering titles online; the paper books are then delivered to the reader by mail or another delivery service. With e-books, users can browse through titles online, and then when they select and order titles, the e-book can be sent to them online or the user can download the e-book. In this era of cyberspace, e-books are gaining popularity. Though some people anticipate that with the evolution of e-books, traditional paper books have lost their popularity. While others opine that digital books cannot replace reading printed books. With the progress in science, e-books are a boon for budding writers and readers. Factors like technological convenience and environment can be kept into consideration. As everything is available with one click online, readers can have access to a vast variety of books in an online library. Moreover, with deforestation at its peak, cutting down more trees for publishing books can be harmful to the environment. Therefore, e-books are pocket-friendly, eco-friendly and convenient to use. This is the opinion of major portion of world population. At the same time, some oppose that e-books do not deliver the same physicality and tangibility as a real book. In addition, the feeling of owning a book is quite different from surfing the online library. The concentration level of the reader and better understanding of the characters is part f reading a printed book. There are millions of books available in the market and some of the ancient manuscripts cannot be translated into digital forms. Therefore, though e-books are vivid and colorful, they cannot provide the same impact as physical books to the bookworms.
Digitization of print could reduce today’s libraries to musty archives: At most libraries, the hand-typed card catalogues thumbed by generations of patrons have been supplanted by electronic indexes accessed via PCs locally or over the Web. Now that Google has agreed to scan millions of books from five major libraries and to make their contents searchable on the Web – a project that experts say is likely to yield spinoff technologies that drastically lower the costs of digitization and catalyze similar efforts worldwide – can the disappearance of libraries themselves be far behind? Most librarians say ‘No’. Whatever the form in which book content is stored, librarians believe, people will still come to libraries for expert help finding information, for public access to the Internet, or for the comfortable atmosphere libraries provide for reading and reflection. And there will always be a need, professionals point out, for places that preserve traditional paper books. All of that may be true. But there is still room to wonder how libraries will trump the expediency of being able to download a whole book over the Web, at little or no cost, instead of schlepping to the library. Print-on-demand services are spreading fast and electronic reading devices will continue to improve until they rival the resolution and usability of regular books. At that point, the only burning reason for a physical trip to the library will be to see a copy of a needed book that has not yet been digitized, or that has been digi¬tized but is not downloadable due to copyright restrictions.
eBooks have many advantages and they are also becoming quite possible. However, none of the advantages that ebooks possess are good enough to make them obliterate printed books from the world.
So in reality, the future of libraries may rest on just two factors: the rate at which digitization and display technologies ¬advance, and the evolution of laws and practices regarding copyrights.. At the same time, many books written in the past five to eight years have been published in both print and electronic form, and libraries have arranged with publishers to make some of these new e-books available for loan. If publishers and authors maintain their tight control on these books after they are scanned, public libraries will still have an important place as a free source for them, even if they can loan out only a few electronic copies at a time. On the other hand, if Google and others can arrange with publishers and authors to allow low-cost downloads of whole books – a likely prospect, seeing that it gives publishers a new way to squeeze revenues from their backlists – then libraries will inevitably recede in importance. It’s a simple matter of convenience: free or low-cost access to digital books will make libraries more dispensable. Librarianship isn’t about to disappear as a profession. But if librarians want a steady supply of patrons, they’ll need to find ways to keep their institutions relevant in the digital age. To conclude, it is believed that both traditional books and digital books have their own readers. Since the present generation is more technology savvy, youngsters tend to use digital books. Even though e-books have a flourishing future, physical paper books will never disappear completely. It is true that eBooks have many advantages and they are also becoming quite possible. However, none of the advantages that ebooks possess are good enough to make them obliterate printed books from the world.
(The author a teacher by profession is presently working at Government High School Brakpora Anantnag. Views are his own)
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