Reading can be essential to students when it comes to education. Studying for a test, finding information for a project, and even entertainment can be important to a student in their high school career. For some students, they find comfort knowing that a resource like that is available within the school. There are two formatting options, physical and digital, which are both prominent in student education.
According to the American Library Association (ALA), there has been a 34% increase in digital book borrowing since 2019. With this rise in digital novels, schools across America have invested in digital formatting of books due to its cheaper cost and space in comparison to physical books.
Lauren Feeback, GCHS librarian, stated, “I will say we have 200 e-books, and honestly they are not checked out very frequently. I always tell classes that if they want them, I will buy them for you. They would just have to let me know.”
While Feeback has not seen a huge increase in the numbers of digital book checkouts, she acknowledged that digital reading has increased outside the library. Feeback stated the reason for this rise is tied to convenience, “Honestly I did not even start reading on my phone until probably a year ago—I always had a hard copy of the book. It has more convenience, such as waiting in a doctor’s office and I can just pull the book up on my phone”.
GCHS has had 19 e-books checked out this year alone, which equals around 1% of all checkouts. They are promoted throughout the library’s website, first being introduced on the main page with the site MackinVia. Though, there is no clear promotion within the library, only few posters located across the room.
Despite the growth of popularity nationwide of e-book borrowing, the case remains that relatively few high school students choose to borrow these books. Feedback later adds that because of the lack of demand for e-books within the high school, the budget is directed more towards physical books.
Many students do seem to have preferences, some students claim that there is a lack of physical connection and even the idea that the book is not truly theirs since it is not in your hands. Senior Katie McClellan stated that, “I do not like digital reading, it is less immersive–-also it adds a strain to my eyes.”
Junior Mia Vittitoe is a student that reads both physical and digital novels. Vittitoe mentioned that the difference between them is simply just the feeling, “I do not have a personal preference, I feel as if I am reading digitally, it shows a story—but a book lets you feel it.” She later added that, ”I do love collecting my own physical books, but I do understand people not wanting to collect books since it a lot of times is single use and takes up space.”
Any reading that gets done is beneficial, Whether e-book demands are high or low, students will still be receiving the information needed for success.
Jaqueline Lockard, a teacher at Elkhorn Crossing School, stated,, “Let’s be perfectly clear on one thing first: the best kind of reading is the reading that gets done. Period. If you are devouring a series on your phone while waiting for the bus, listening to an audiobook on your way to soccer practice, or poring over a graphic novel until the pages are worn, you are a reader. And as your teacher, that is what makes me happiest.”
Lockard added, “Vocabulary, empathy, critical thinking—you get those benefits no matter the format.”
For the future of e-books, Lockard’s opinion is simply, ”The future isn’t about choosing one over the other; it’s about expanding our teaching toolbox to include both digital and print resources.”
While Lockard advocates for all reading forms, she does not lean toward favoritism between the two for her own personal reading, ”For me, it comes down to the physical interaction the conversation you have with a book that goes beyond just the words. There’s the weight of it in your hands, which changes as you shift the balance of read pages from your right hand to your left. Most importantly, for learning, is the ability to make a book truly yours. I encourage my students to annotate, to underline passages that sing to them, to write questions in the margins, to dog-ear a page with a sentence so powerful they know they’ll have to come back to it. It’s an active, physical dialogue with the text… It’s much harder to have that same tactile, memorable experience on a tablet, where a highlight is just another temporary piece of data.”
