E-books: The Future of the Library?

Like millions of Kindle and iPad readers, NYU-Poly’s Bern Dibner Library continues to add to its e-book collection. From a recent Library News article:

As library space becomes a premium and the number of our remote users continues to grow, we aim to focus on increasing our e-book collection. E-books also tend to be less expensive to store and maintain (it's hard to damage an e-book by spilling coffee all over it!). Students appreciate their ability to search full text with ease and the fact that it's much easier to fit a dozen e-books in a backpack than a pile of print books. 

Is it possible that you could visit NYU-Poly in a few years to find the stacks replaced with charging stations? The article explains why that’s unlikely, and why that may actually be a good thing.

"There are a few obstacles that currently prevent widespread adoption of e-books in academia," including interoperability and interfaces, digital rights management, the e-book business model, scarcity of academic titles, and preference for print books:

“…many students and faculty simply prefer to hold paper bound books. According to a recent study by the Book Industry Study Group, 75% of college students prefer print textbooks over e-books. Some academic libraries that have made efforts to remove print books and focus on e-book collections have met resistance from outraged students and professors (for eg. Syracuse University Libraries).

Learn more about the obstacles preventing adoption and share your opinion by taking the e-book survey at the end of the library's post.