Exploratory Essay

Books are an integral part of people’s lives. They provide the foundation of learning from an early age and continue to grow with people throughout their adult lives.

The purpose of a book is to convey information. Whether that information be intellectually driven or for personal reasons, books are always going to be a part of people’s lives. However, the appearance of books has taken a drastic change within the past couple of years. Transitioning over to a digital age, books are no exception. While many readers are familiar with printed books, e-books are a relatively new option when considering the format of reading. With all of the advances being made in technology to make lives easier and more efficient, the printing industry could be in

The study found that e-readers often times have more costs that the consumer will endure such as, “ebooks carry a ‘premium price,’ and possibly include annual charges of some sort. E-books often carry the extra price of printing before patrons use a section of the book, a cost that is either passed on to the patron or that added to what the institution is already paying to purchase or lease the book in the first place” (Bailey et al., 2015).

Books often endure the same cost for things such as “production costs such as editing and formatting” as well as the cost for prepress and the cost associated with hiring editors, however, e-books require additional unique costs such as “online hosting, server and network maintenance, reformatting for multiple formats, customer service, and technical support” (Bailey et al., 2015). Additionally when considering whether to buy an e-book or a print book in relation to schooling, not all titles are available in digital format.

According to the same study conducted by Auburn University “titles requested by the faculty were then examined to determine availability of an e-version of the title. Of the unique titles, 57% (264) were also available in an electronic format” (Bailey et al.,