NOW READ THIS: PRINT ISN'T DEAD 58 South Bay Accent SHUTTERSTOCK (2) “Print is dead.” So said Egon Spangler (Howard Ramis) in “Ghostbusters” back in 1984. Audiences laughed, but it also gave them pause. It was, after all, the same year Steve Jobs famously introduced the first Macintosh personal computer. The seed of doubt blossomed into full-blown anxiety for many bookworms when, a decade later, the Internet became widely used. To many it seemed that very soon, like tomorrow, we’d all access everything via a screen. Well, we have…and we haven't. Some speculated that print books and even libraries might disappear. Three decades later the debate over print vs. e-books rages on. Although digital books and resources have usurped print in many applications, local school librarians say that reports of print’s demise and expiration are premature. “Our print collections are very much alive and well in all of our libraries,” Harker’s head librarian Susan Smith says. Print books take precedence in preschool and as children are learning to read, but as students progress, the school’s library offers books and resource books in both print and electronic form. “Of course we follow the research very closely, and we listen to what our kids want,” she says. “It’s both a developmental and a personal preference.” But it goes beyond that, she and other librarians and technology directors say, because for some it’s not only print vs. electronic: There’s also as device divide. iPad or tablet vs. smart phone? Everyone seems to have a favorite. For Harker students Andrew Rule, 16, and Allison Wang, 17, however, there’s just no contest. Print is their preferred choice, for schoolwork and pleasure reading. “You may get a skewed perception from the two of us. We both feel pretty strongly about this,” Andrew says. While some students appreciate the convenience—and lighter backpacks—that electronic textbooks bring, Rule and Wang still prefer print. “I invariably use text because I like to write in the margins,” says Rule. “If you look at my books at home, I’ve defaced a lot of my books with my scribblings and my highlights.” Says Wang, who loves science fiction: “E-books just feel weird to me.” Smith reports that students who prefer print tell her it’s just very calming and relaxing to be able to hold a book. There are no pop-ups, no distractions. However, “Other kids say they want everything digital: That’s what they like, that’s where they live, that’s what they have handy.” Ann Weber, Bellarmine’s head librarian until her recent retirement, says she finds electronic reference resources to be a better use of time. “I sometimes pick up the book show it to the students, then will show them how to access it online.” She expects the use of e-books and online resources to only increase in the future, as older teachers who assign print books retire and new digital-oriented teachers take their place. The paper-pixel ratio at present is about 50:50, she estimates. That increasing reliance on e-books could lead to big changes in how library space is reimagined in the future, says Chris Cozort, Bellarmine’s director of educational technology. “I think that at a lot of schools it’s expanding the idea of what that space means, because if you have access to so much in the way resources and information digitally, that’s obviously a little more space efficient.” How schools choose to use open space in libraries, “is very much up for discussion,” Cozort adds. Librarians agree that library space in the future may look very different, but print isn’t going anywhere soon.
South Bay Accent - AugSep 2016
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