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. The Academic libraries are being challenged to upgrade from old fashioned hard copy resources to digital libraries including electronic books. Purpose: 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 was 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 86.8% of the students were in undergraduate program with 48.9% students in the second year of the program, 95.6% in the age group of 17–26 years and 59.5% of them being females. The study concluded that 74.6% of students prefer e-books in terms of easy to carry and 80.6% of them spent more than 1 h reading from e-books, while 66.7% of the students preferred printed books due to the ease in studying and 67.9% favored as it is easy to make notes. However, 54% of them felt studying from the digital copies difficult. Conclusion: The study concludes that the students prefer e-books as they spent more time reading from e-books and are easy to carry; while traditional printed copy is comfortable to use and easy to take notes and study for exams. Implications for practice: As many changes are happening in the instructional design strategies with the introduction of hybrid methods of teaching and learning, the findings of the study will guide the stake holders and educational policy makers to design novel and modernized educational design that has a psychological, and social impact among the students.