Books vs e-books : consumption trends amongst University students

Abstract

The book has gone through a multitude of versions, from etchings on walls, to wax tablets, to papyrus and eventually into the paper-bound version mostly known these days. And now the age of technology has brought forth the electronic book; the e-book. Nowadays, publishers present their publications in two main forms, physical and electronic. It appears that sales for electronic versions have increased substantially in the last years, but it does not seem that they are in ways replacing the physical version. This research thus aims to see what type of preferences students at the University of Malta have between the two types, books and e-books. It was carried out by distributing a questionnaire to the students, both digitally, via e-mail, and physically at the university's library with a view to investigate whether the results gathered through these two methods would produce differing results, by internet users and library patrons. Students were found to favour books and e-books depending on the context, their preference being based on the practicality that each platform offers. Novels, textbooks, magazines, comics and art books are mostly read on books, while academic papers, newspapers, reference materials and dissertations are favoured electronically. Nostalgia and practicality are thus seen as the defining factors when choosing between books and e-books. Overall, there was no major difference between the answers gathered from the two sources and no clear platform is preferred by the students for all kinds of text. This research has implications mainly for the management of libraries and increased used of virtual learning environments utilized by universities.