Grand Forks Secondary School (GFSS) is purchasing 91 ebooks for approximately $1,000, which can be loaned out like physical library books to students.
Given the movement to use technology as a learning tool in the classroom (SMART boards etc.), it isn’t surprising but it really isn’t the right thing to do.
GFSS converted its library to a gym, a controversial move, and while the reasoning is sound (health of students), and the fact that administration says only 20 per cent of the books were being utilized, accessibility is an issue with the digital books.
Students will be able to read ebooks through devices such as laptop, tablet (iPad etc.) and personal computers and even their cellphones and while GFSS has computer stations and a number of tablet computer that it has purchased, there are more students than the number of outlets for reading ebooks.
Not everyone has a cellphone and not everyone has access to a personal computer – library books are intended to be used by all aren’t they?
Everyone has access to a library book
Also, it is said that students and youth today seem to be spending too much time staring at screens – playing video games, social media, computer time, watching TV – and reading through a device isn’t doing much to cut down the amount of time students and youth stare at screens.
Research from the United Kingdom’s Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health even suggests that with 6.1 hours of screen time (the average for British adolescents) there is a link with Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
While the move to the use of technology use is a sign of the times, even in the classroom, using ebooks is not a replacement to the physical borrowing of books from a library.
While every student can take a library book out, not everyone has tablets, personal computers or laptops or other devices that can be used to view the digital books and therefore, the digital books won’t be as accessible.
Even if library books weren’t seeing as much use, all students should be able to borrow a library book at any time, whether the reasons are for research or even for pleasure.
– Grand Forks Gazette