Guest Post from Jaclyn: Real books and ebooks

Today's post is from Jaclyn, a longtime friend and a future librarian!  She took some time out of her super-busy last semester of school to write something for us to enjoy and think about. Thanks, Jaclyn!

Greetings faithful readers of Stacey’s Blog,

I’m a huge book nerd. I like reading books, I like collecting books, I like talking about books and I even like binding books. I’m also a book nerd getting a library degree (a qualified book nerd?). I’m graduating in May from UNC-Chapel Hill (ahem, go Tar Heels) and it has been quite an experience. When people ask me what I’m going to school for, and I reply with “Library Science,” common reactions are:

“you need a Master’s for that?”
“Oh, I didn’t realize there was anything particularly scientific about libraries”
“Well everything is going digital now, right? So we won’t need books
anymore. Or librarians.”

I have to out my own dad as the culprit of that last question. He and I have been debating about print vs. digital since I started school and of course, as a qualified book nerd, I know I am right (so what if he’s older and wiser and has a PhD? The man doesn’t even like fiction!). 

I’m convinced books will never go away. People love them too much. It’s like getting rid of real sugar just because we made Splenda. Librarians aren’t going anywhere anytime soon either. Who do you think tags and indexes and takes care of all the metadata for your precious digital materials? But I have been doing some thinking about this whole eBook thing recently…and I might just maybe kind of sort of want a Nook…

Before my dad thinks he’s won, let me explain. I want to read eBooks so I can decide which real books to buy. Most public libraries provide eBook service now. You can check out eBooks for free and download them to the eReader of your choice (Nook, Kindle, etc). You have a limited but reasonable amount of time to read it before it expires. And even I have to admit that the eBook format over the regular book format has some definite advantages (easy access and transportation!). 

But I still would never pay for an eBook…If I’m going to pay for something to read it is going to be pretty. It is going to be in my hands. It is going to smell like a book and look like a book. I won’t think twice about lending it to my neighbor. It is going to be something I will still be able to read in 20 years no matter how technology changes. (And that is why there will always be books, dad).

So I guess what I really want to say is, can’t eBooks and real books coexist?