Preferences for Printed Books Versus E-Books Among University Students in a Middle Eastern Country

Background: Learning styles vary among the students at the university level which has changed from traditional to more technology pervaded strategies involving digital gadgets. Global upsurge and abundance of digital gadgets has found its conquest in the field of education. The Academic libraries are being challenged to upgrade from old fashioned hard copy resources to digital libraries including electronic books. The main purpose of the study is to assess the preferences of using printed books versus e-books.
Methods: A descriptive cross sectional survey design used to collect the data. A total of 607 students were included in the study. Data collected was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.
Results: Results showed that 99% of the students were in undergraduate program with 48.9% students in the second year of the program & 95.4% in the age group of 17-26 years. The study concluded that 74.6% of students prefer e-books in terms of easy to carry while in contradiction 57.5% of the students preferred the printed books due to the ease in studying while 54% found studying from the digital copies difficult.
Conclusion: Digital invasion into everyday lifestyle in unavoidable but students prefer the traditional printed copy for learning whereas prefer the digital gadgets in terms of comfort.