It is a rainy Sunday afternoon. You can’t go to the beach, so you decide to read. What do you reach for? A hard copy of your book? Your laptop? Your iPad? Your Nook? With technology increasingly taking a role in how people get information, many are asking what people prefer: a physical book or an ebook?

“I am always on my laptop, so I prefer an electronic book because it is less things to carry in my backpack,” says senior Oliver Tannheiser. “I don’t want to come back to ODA years from now as a hunchback, you know.”

Even though some say having all of your books in one place is a lightening one’s load and a major convenience, others say that they prefer to hold a book and flip the pages.

Ninth grader Mackenzie Grace says that “ebooks are convenient and she can get the sequel faster, however sometimes she likes a physical book better.”

In school this question is more critical. Many of ODA’s English teachers require students to actively read, which means marking a text with notes, highlights, and other indications of interacting with the text. With ebooks that stopping to mark the text can prove to be inconvenient. Some say ebooks are more designed for pleasure reading and physical books are more effective for academic reading.

In recognition of the value of electronic books to read for pleasure, this past spring, our librarian, Miss Mandel decided to invest in a program called Overdrive, which is practically a virtual library. The county libraries offer it, so when students came to her with a library card, she was able to help students with getting the books they were looking for.

In years prior, Mandel wanted to get it for the school but found that it was “incredibly expensive.” This year, Mrs. Mandel was able to get a better price on Overdrive. Because she purchased the collection consortially, we received a package that we could share with the lower campus.

The vast majority of these books are popular books for pleasure reading.  The rental period is 2 weeks and the book disappears at the duration of the rental period. The ebooks are one to one, meaning one copy for every reader.

Mrs. Mandel selected the books as a whole package rather than individually.  On the upper campus, she was able to add 1,000 electronic titles to the already existing collection.  In the future, we plan to grow the collection and add titles every year. Within 5 years the collection could hold up to 10,000 copies.

The ODA library is encouraging students to try checking out an ebook for pleasure reading and let us know how you like it!

How can you get an Overdrive book?

To download:

1. Log into the portal and go into the library dashboard
2. Look for the ebooks icon and select ODA in the drop menu
3. In order to access the collection on either your computer or reading device, visit Mrs. Mandel to get your Username and password.
4. Explore the world of ebooks!