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Table
of Contents
Read about
the pros and cons of electronic books. What do you think?
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In an article titled
Ebooks: Friend or Foe? Steve Grant writes the
following:
"Let us not forget
the 'look, feel, and smell' factor that many of us value highly
[in books]. Book lovers savor the texture and appearance of paper
pages and enjoy slipping in that favorite aromatic slice-of-cedar
souvenir bookmark, handling quality hardcover bindings, and gazing
at shelves with all those neat packages of thought arrayed before
our eyes, organized however we see fit, waiting only to be slipped
off and opened for reading...
"[But] the potential
advantages of ebooks are enormous. Publishers and vendors save
the costs of printing, binding, warehousing, shipping, and handling
retailer returns; content updates are vastly easier. Because publishing
a new ebook is less expensive and thus poses lower financial risk
for publishers, authors (especially beginning ones) find it easier
to get new books published. In fact, authors can even self-publish;
they can perhaps even make their first book available for free
or at very low cost as a way to acquire a following.
"Advantages for
readers are manifold, too. There's greater and faster availability—download
a book from anywhere, at any time, and begin reading it immediately.
Because maintaining a file on a publisher's server costs little,
ebooks need never go out of print. You can't lose or damage ebooks....
"The digital format
itself offers tremendous advantages to readers: keyword searching,
hyperlinked cross references, captions, tables of contents, indexes,
and glossaries; changeable fonts; embedded audio...
"Advantages to libraries are also considerable: no unpacking
or processing, no shelving and reshelving, no physical circulation
(patrons perform self-checkout), no overdues or fine collection,
no lost books or replacement of them, no repair, no shelf space
required..."
Return
to the previous screen to write and submit your thoughts about
eBooks.
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