Will e-Books Replace Printed Books?

Joella Miller

e-book: an electronic book is a book-length publication in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on electronic devices

E-books’ sales topped paperbacks and hardcovers for the first time in 2011

With $90.3 million in sales in February 2011, e-books were up 202% compared to the

same month a year earlier

“Although e-books are sometimes defined as an electronic version of a printed book, many e-books exist without any printed equivalent.”

Executives are predicting that traditional retailers will not be able to survive if they do not adapt to an e-book centric industry

% of Children who have read an e-book:

2010: 25% 2013: 46%

… Almost double in 3 years

“As long as he is reading that is what is important. If he prefers e-books that is fine with me. I think more kids will be reading e-books and he should be comfortable with both.” - Mother of 6 year-old boy

How will this impact libraries?

Public libraries have built eReading rooms that allow readers to browse within their digital library

e-books offer features printed books cannot

Readers have the ability to

•  Increase/decrease font size

•  Use a built-in dictionary

•  Make notes

•  Share excerpts easily on social media

17% read the same number of e-books as printed books

However, some people are still attached to printed books

46% of people still prefer exclusively reading printed books

"I think print and paper has a lasting value that people appreciate. Pixels are too temporary.”

While 16-24 year-olds are known to be technologically savvy early adopters, 62% prefer print books to e-books

Holding a physical book and flipping pages is the top-rated reason for people preferring printed books to digital books.

Printed books offer readers a different type of experience

e-books might be okay for novels but it won’t replace coffee table books or photo books

In the future sales of print books will continue to decline, while sales of e-books will continue to rise…

but e-books will never fully replace printed books…

because e-books are not a better format replacing a lesser one, they offer a completely different experience

Sources    h#p://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-­‐book    h#p://money.cnn.com/2011/04/15/technology/ebooks_beat_paperbacks/index.htm    h#p://cnnmoneytech.tumblr.com/post/4044671614/the-­‐e-­‐book-­‐tsunami    h#p://mediaroom.scholasEc.com/kfrr    h#p://www.mysanantonio.com/sacultura/conexion/arEcle/eReading-­‐rooms-­‐now-­‐available-­‐at-­‐public-­‐libraries-­‐5418905.php    h#p://www.dnaindia.com/scitech/report-­‐paper-­‐vs-­‐kindle-­‐paperwhite-­‐can-­‐e-­‐books-­‐ever-­‐replace-­‐the-­‐proper-­‐paper-­‐ones-­‐1959347    h#p://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/05/02/data-­‐point-­‐people-­‐sEll-­‐like-­‐to-­‐read-­‐a-­‐good-­‐printed-­‐book/    h#p://mashable.com/2013/01/16/e-­‐books-­‐vs-­‐print/    h#p://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/nov/25/young-­‐adult-­‐readers-­‐prefer-­‐printed-­‐ebooks    All  photos  taken  from  Flickr  with  CreaEve  Commons  licensing