Students prefer smart reading to paperbacks

Schools too have introduced technology in libraries

Contrary to a rising belief, reading is not a dying habit, aver school teachers. It has just changed its form, they claim. With technology paving the way, for readers now prefer e-books to paperbacks, schools have also begun to introduce the technology in their libraries.

The tenth year of Amazon Kindle, a popular e-reader, coincided with National Library Week in 2017. School authorities say that their senior students make use of the gadget for their daily course work as well as light reading.

Ms. Seetha Murthy, principal of Silver Oaks, says, “Although our junior class students use the physical library we have, our senior students have Ipads with e-readers installed in them. They use the e-readers for lessons too, with teachers often sending them links to pages related to their course study. Students have also formed book clubs according to their favourite genres and they regularly exchange e-books too.”

She further said that it was impossible to insulate a child from technology these days and therefore it was important to empower them with it and teach them its’ benefits and usage.

Librarians also say that students are used to technology and prefer reading in gadgets that they can operate. Ms Sumati Gupta, a school librarian says, “We cannot say that children do not read these days just because they are glued to their phones. They are actually reading more number of articles than we ever did at their age. Similarly, they just make use of e-books as they are more easily available. All the latest releases can be downloaded and even free trials are available and that makes it interesting for youngsters.”

She added that school libraries too were downloading books, often with the suggestions of children. Like physical books, children also swapped ebooks. Of course there are some schools that still believe in the old format of reading and spend a huge amount of money in the buying of books. Mr Narasimha Reddy, principal of Hyderabad Public School, Ramanthapur said, “We spend over `1 lakh annually and have 14,000 books.”