1 Hanem Ibrahim –Future of the book Essay

Scholarly E -Books

The future of the e-book among Generation Y

Submitted byHanem A. Ibrahim

ILS- 518- S 70Dr. Elsie Okobi

Fall 2009

2 Hanem Ibrahim –Future of the book Essay

Introduction

Conventional wisdom said E-books were not going to work. That’s maybe true. The e-books did

get off to a rocky start during the dot-com days. E-books needs expensive e- book readers and

they will never reach the same place and glamour that the traditional books have for centuries.

But in these days students in “Y” Generation (teens) are most likely to be the big consumer of

these e- books now and in the future, they could use them in their studies, they are more

convenient for them, and easy to access any time. Lecturing, pen and paper and traditional books

are not the only mediums out there today to engage students with Scholarly e-books may give

reading a shot, and that’s what I am going to discuss through this paper, I’ll discuss the scholarly

E- books and How far they will be accepted among these generation of teen and youth in the

academic society.

What is Scholarly E- books?

Scholarly e- books are electronic books that used for educational process, and used by students

or teaching staffs. Many higher education (HE) institutions publish books, research reports,

lecture modules, theses, and other information for academic purposes. All these publications are

usually in print form and stored in the university's library for lecturers, researchers, and students'

use. Currently, these printed and bound publications have not been widely promoted, and as a

result their accessibilities have been very limited, they are not noticed locally, and more

importantly, internationally.( Peek, R. (2005).) Other paper books that had been converted to a

digital format (usually through digitizing processes that allowed them to be displayed on

computers) could be consider among these scholarly e-books. Also there are books that

originally have been published electronically without being distributed as paper books, these e-

books could be available online, it could be read as e-mail, or it could be retrieved by a portable

electronic reading device, or it could be files that can be downloaded onto a computer. There is

another recent interpretation of an e-book is the "print-on-demand" book, whereby the contents

of a book are stored in a system connected to a high-speed, high-quality printer, from which

printed and bound copies are produced on demand with the possibility of buying chapter-by-

chapter, customized books (Shiratuddin , N, 2005)

Advantages of e- books

E-books are convenient; most students love screens (TV, computer, etc.), which can

affect their attitude about reading in positive ways. Students like to guide the cursor over the

3 Hanem Ibrahim –Future of the book Essay

words they are reading in an e-book. They will not lose their place as they do when reading a

regular book. Since students can enlarge the font on both computer and the e-book, it is easier for

some students to see the words. E-books also allow students to underline, take notes and use the

built-in dictionary included in e-books. While reading an e-book, students can copy and paste

their favorite lines into a word-processing document, for example. Then they can share these

lines and discuss them in a chat room. An e-book can hold up to 40 novels, so there is only one

lightweight device to carry. Students can read in the dark with an e-book, adjust the backlight,

and adjust the font size. Students sitting in a car or on a plane can read e-books easily. E-books

could work easily as Curriculum Integration, and any curricula can utilize an eBook. In the

newest eBooks, there are three-dimensional capabilities, so students can see models for science

class, for an example, and turn the model literally around. E-books are also very useful for

students who have handicapping conditions. A student with limited use of his or her hands can

even push the button with a pencil in their mouth and turn pages.(Insinnia, E., & Skarecki, E.,

2004).

Disadvantages of E- Books

There are also lots of disadvantages for the e-books ( Jamali, H., Nicholas, D., & Rowlands, I.

(2009). They could be deleted accidentally (assumed that they can be saved). There are difficult

to browse or skim read (might be specific to some platforms). They could be overpriced, could

be tedious if the internet connection is not fast, they have lack serendipity, they remove the

ability to accidentally stumble across something on the shelf, which is often more influential than

what was originally being looked for. The biggest problem with these scholarly e- books that

they make students over-reliant on computers and reluctant to use the library and do active

research , also they are not easy to concentrate on while reading them and it is hard to absorb

their information (computer and internet could be source of distraction) they reduce the control

on plagiarism and increase the concern over copyright, and they makesit hard to annotate and

highlight and so on.

The future of E- books among students and academics.

There are too many studies that aimed to find out about the perspective of students and

academics, the main e-book users, on e-books. One of these studies ( Jamali, H., Nicholas, D., &

Rowlands, I.,2009) provided an analysis of two open-ended questions about e-books, contained

in a UK national survey conducted between 18 January and 1 March 2008. The survey obtained

4 Hanem Ibrahim –Future of the book Essay

a response from more than 20,000 academic staff and students; 16,000 free-text responses were

obtained to these two questions. The searcher found out that convenience associated with online

access along with searchability was the biggest advantage of e-books. That study showed also a

potential market for e-textbooks; however, they explained that e-books have yet to become more

student-friendly by improving features such as printing and screenreading. The study also found

that there are many users who would prefer hard copies to e-books. About six percent of the

respondents stated that they preferred hard copy books in normal situations. Also they indicated

the need for better promotion of e-books among students and lecturers, publishing companies

have to learn more about marketing between this Generation” Y” (Mc-Grow- Hill, 1999). In just a

few years, today's teens will be out of college and shopping for their first. These companies have

to follow them since they are at school, or college now, they will be with them as they enter the

high-spending years of young adulthood. Companies unable to click with Gen Y will lose out on

a vast new market--and could find the doors thrown.

Conclusion

E-books will become an important part of the future of this young generation. The

technology is emerging, highly dynamic, and has great potential when it comes to delivering up-

to-date information and due to its importance in academic and educational environment

distribution of these e- book among this generation this technology has changed the academic

society and will continue having positive and negative effects on students and teachers and that

would certainly affected the whole society in the future.

References

1. Insinnia, E., & Skarecki, E. (2004). E-Books. Media & Methods, 41(1), 23. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

2. Jamali, H., Nicholas, D., & Rowlands, I. (2009). Scholarly e-books: the views of 16,000 academics Results from the JISC National E-Book Observatory. Aslib Proceedings, 61(1), 33-47. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

References3. Peek, R. (2005). The E-Books Redux. Information Today, 22(7), 17-18. Retrieved from Academic

Search Premier database.4. Shiratuddin, Norshuhada (2005) E-Books in Higher Education: Technology, E-Marketing Prospects,

and Pricing Strategy. Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations. Hershey: Apr-Jun 2005. Vol. 3, Iss. 2; pg. 1, 16 pgs retrieved on Nov. 8, 2009, from http://0-proquest.umi.com.www.consuls.org/pqdweb?index=0&did=800939981&SrchMode=1&sid=1&Fmt=4&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1257730513&clientId=23650

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5. Mc-Grow- Hill (1999) Generation Y: Today's teens--the biggest bulge since the boomers--may force marketers to toss their old tricks .- BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : FEBRUARY 15, 1999 ISSUE retrieved on Nov,9, 2009 : from http://www.businessweek.com/datedtoc/1999/9907.htm