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Hanem Ibrahim –Future of the book Essay

Scholarly E -Books
The future of the e-book among Generation Y

Submitted by
Hanem A. Ibrahim

ILS- 518- S 70
Dr. Elsie Okobi

Fall 2009
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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-
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Hanem Ibrahim –Future of the book Essay

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 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
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Hanem Ibrahim –Future of the book Essay

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 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.
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Hanem Ibrahim –Future of the book Essay

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.
References
3. 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
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