Ebooks vs. Physical Books

An ebook or a physical book? Students wonder which is better as they begin ordering books professors listed on the syllabus. An ebook is a digital version of a printed textbook and, sometimes, there are access codes that involve course content for the class.

“I prefer physical books because you can highlight and take notes from the book. If you have an ebook,yeah you’re ‘on the go,” said Karen Pena, a junior at Kean. “But I wouldn’t want to throw my $300 iPad at the wall if I’m ever pissed off at whatever I’m reading.”

Physical textbooks can be heavy and out of stock quicker than ebooks, as opposed to ebooks which are never out of stock and can be instantly received. With ebooks, students will need an electronic device and sometimes the device is not fully charged which may cause issues. It may also have restrictions on printing and copying.

“I prefer the physical textbook mainly because of the fact that you can paper clip together a good amount of pages where you can see two pages at the same time that are not next to each other,” said Michael Rado, a sophomore at Kean. “You can get more work done like that. That way, you don’t need to keep scrolling for that one particular page.”

The general manager of the Kean bookstore, Guillermo “Will” Giler, had a lot of information involving physical and ebooks and said that the bookstore is Kean’s number one source for used and rental books for courses.

General Manager Guillermo “Will” Giler. Photo Courtesy of Valencia Stevenson.

“It depends on the class. We’re finding out that more of the graduate level courses are using printed books,” said Giler about the books that professors prefer to use. “When you get to an undergraduate level, they tend to use more access codes, access codes such as Connect and MyLabs from Pearson. With the larger undergrad classes, we are realizing that those professors are using more access codes.”

The ebook is cheaper than a printed book and, depending on the book, you can save anywhere between 40 to 60 percent on a digital book compared to print.

Access codes are a little different because with the code, not only are students buying the digital book, they’re buying a course management program, an actual item that the publishers sell that the students use.

Giler said Barnes and Noble runs a focus group with about 5,000 students across the nation to see what students are thinking. As a result, ”We found out that 72 percent of the students still prefer a printed book when students were asked if they prefer a printed book or digital that is at the same price,” said Giler.

Giler further said that the bookstore does take that information into consideration to accommodate students, including publishers, such as when publishers sell their access codes with the printed book as a bundle, which is a lot cheaper.

When discussing the pros and cons, Giler said an e-book is not as easy as print for note-taking and highlighting. But the pricing for ebooks is a bi g pro. With physical books, the con is the pricing.

“As far as pros, I think physical books are still the living, breathing reason for education,”said Giler. “The book itself is still going to be number one. Nothing is going to beat it. People want that tangible object. When it comes to a textbook, the academic purpose kind of gets lost in the whole electronic thing. I still think it is t he number one source for faculty and students.”

Giler highly encourages students to follow @Keanbookstore on Instagram for more information on sales and other news.