Book or Nook? E readers and the changing face of Libraries DID YOU GET A KINDLE FOR CHRISTMAS? How would you feel about your child’s library being stocked with electronic readers? The National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) printed the following article from the Worcester Business Journal in November ’09. Let us know your thoughts on this subject by mailing p.heffner@severnschool.com Stand and watch the circulation desk at Cushing Academy’s library in Ashburnham, MA and before long a student will come up and request to check out not a book, but a Kindle. About 68 of the electronic readers, which retail for about $250, are distributed throughout the campus after the school’s headmaster, James Tracy, invested about $100,000 in the library and technology budgets to embrace a digital future in education. “The students are going to electronic resources anyway; meanwhile we are warehousing books in these vast buildings at a tremendous overhead. The financials alone will drive schools to say, we can offer far more resources much more cheaply, and give students resources they will actually use.” As the e-book industry continues to grow, some educators see an opportunity for the technology in education. Others are not as enthused by the idea. “Will e-readers have an application in education? Absolutely,” said Michael Welch, headmaster at Saint John High School in Shrewsbury, MA. “Will a textbook ever lose its place in a classroom? I don’t think so.” Forrester Research Inc. estimates that already 2 million e-books have been sold in the United States so far. Another 1 million are expected to be purchased this holiday season alone. By the end of next year, there could be more than 10 million e-readers in the market. In the education industry specifically, companies have begun marketing e-textbooks to schools. “E-textbooks will be a killer application for our technology. We see these devices as allowing a student to take an entire library to class in their backpack,” said Sriram Peruvemba, Vice President of Marketing for E-Ink Corp, of Cambridge, which makes the screens most e-readers use.
Some private schools do not have e-readers circulating around campus, but have made a commitment to using digital textbooks. Worcester Academy’s middle school program, wherever possible, uses online textbooks as opposed to the traditional print textbooks. It costs about 75 percent less and gives students access to interactive material. “Plus, it means students don’t have to carry around heavy textbooks,” said Neil Isakson, Director of External Communications for the 6-12th grade boarding and day school in Worcester. “E-textbooks will be a killer application for our technology. We see these devices as allowing a student to take an entire library to class in their backpack.” Tracey Leger-Hornby is the assistant vice president for library services at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, the private college in Worcester. She’s excited about one day integrating electronic readers into the library. However, “... some of the e-readers do not have color screens and do not display graphs and charts as well as a printed book,” she said. One day she expects the price of the e-readers to decrease and the features they offer to increase, at which time the e-readers could make a good investment. “I just don’t think we’re quite there yet,” she said. Molly Ingram, Director of Communications for St. Mark’s School, a private boarding high school in Southborough, isn’t as convinced about the e-readers, such as Kindle, or Barnes and Noble’s new product, the Nook. Ingram values having students who are researching a term paper scouring through the stacks of a
library searching for the book that has the information they need. “How many times have you been in a library, looking at a shelf, and you take down 10 books, flip through them, read the jacket and the chapter headings until you find the one you need?” she said. “I can’t make those determinations based on a title and a description online.” Myra McGovern, director of public information for the National Association of Independent Schools, said private schools in the country are watching the e-book industry very closely. “Schools around the country are always looking for new ways to deliver curriculum, particularly in ways that appeal to and work for digital native students,” she said. As the technology continues to evolve she expects more schools to explore how e-readers can be integrated in their classrooms. But, she said the technology will supplement, not replace printed text. “I don’t think it’s ever going to be one or the other exclusively,” she said. “If you’re concerned about your carbon footprint, electronic books make a lot of sense: fewer trees cut down, less petroleum used to deliver heavy items, and less in the recycling bin. I think e-books for textbooks and non-fiction titles make perfect sense, but I don’t see them as a wholly satisfactory substitute for fiction or children’s books. I love taking a stack of paperback mysteries to the beach. And can you imagine reading Pat the Bunny or a Richard Scarry book on an electronic reader?“ Mary Coutts, Severn School Head Librarian
The Rise Of The E-Book . Cushing Academy leads the way in new tech adoption, but will anyone follow? By Brandon Butler, Worcester Business Journal, November 9, 2009, www.wbjournal.com/news44936html?Type=search 7