60,000 e-books added to Yolo County Library
Yolo County Library has introduced 60,000 new e-books to its collection in partnership with Enki, an e-book platform created by California libraries. This new addition will add even more resources to the library’s collection.
All genres are included in the collection in hopes that everyone in the Davis community will be satisfied. Crista Cannariato, the library’s regional supervisor, explained that Enki offers many unique resources that would be difficult for people to come by any other way.
“I think that it’s great to have additional e-books available to the public,” Cannariato said. “I think it’s going to help to increase the variety of what we’re able to offer and it also increases the amount of materials we’re able to offer […] There are a lot of titles […] by independent publishers [and] some self-published items as well. There’s study aids and test preparation books, which will also be available to the community.”
Cannariato also noted that the e-books will improve people’s experiences with the library overall. As more resources become available, the usage of the library by community members will hopefully increase .
“We are able to let people check out 20 titles at a time on that platform, which is nice if they want to read that much,” Cannariato said. “So hopefully people will be able to find something without having to wait for it.”
While there are certainly many advantages to offering more e-books, Roberto Delgadillo, a librarian at Shields Library who specializes in research support services, explained that there can also be drawbacks, since many people still prefer using physical copies of books.
“Despite having these e-book collections, you still have people who want the physical book,” Delgadillo said. “It’s available electronically […] And we increasingly find that people want the physical copy because they like the feel of the book and they want a break from looking at screens.”
Delgadillo explained that the preference for an e-book or for a physical copy is a personal preference that has little to do with age or generation. Therefore, the doubt of which version people will want can make librarians’ jobs much more difficult.
“There’s a necessity for it, and at the same time paradoxically there’s a desire for some books to get them physically,” Delgadillo said. “It really does depend on the individual user. It’s not a matter of generation. There’s this view that the millennials just love everything electronically. But not necessarily. It’s a matter of comfort, really.”
Students at UC Davis can be seen across campus using both forms of books, but as Sophia Flores, a fourth-year Chicano studies and sociology double major, explained, the choice is often based on comfort and accessibility.
“Growing up, I spent a lot of time in the library because my mom was a librarian, so I’ve learned to appreciate having a book in my hands and learning how to interact with the words on the page,” Flores said. “And I’ve found that experience to be very crucial for someone who reads. But I think it’s something I enjoy when it’s a personal read, rather than a read for school. For school, I usually have all my readings online, and I read them in PDFs because my laptop is my everything and it is really easily accessible.”
Although there is certainly a demand for both versions of books, the Yolo County Library looks forward to being able to provide a variety of resources to the community, fulfilling people’s different preferences and interests.
“There was a lot of concern that e-books would cause print books to go away, but we’re seeing that that’s not true,” Cannariato said. “I think they’re two formats that can coexist happily together and meet people’s varying needs.”
Written By: Hadya Amin — city@theaggie.org
