Potentiality of E-books as important electronic resources in college libraries

Abstract

We, in the journey of our life, are the witness to a revolution – the revolution in the discipline of electronics, communication and computer science. We are now living in an electronic world or digital world. Naturally, the types of collection of academic libraries has also changed. Traditional college library collections were based on paper documents.Now, print documents alone cannot satisfy user’s demand fully. The user, through internet and various other ‘e-sources’, has a much wider and bigger access to gather information regarding his or her requisite query. Today, most of the college libraries can be considered as a ‘hybrid library’. Their collections are a mixture of conventional print materials and electronic materials –e-books, e-journals etc.Users, particularly in college libraries, still prefer to use print documents in comparison to e-documents. This attitude may be attributed to the ‘inertia’ or habit of using print documents for years. We, library professionals, have a definite role to help users to overcome these mental barriers immediately.Today, no academic work is possible without consultation of e-documents. This article highlights on Types of e-books, Merits and Demerits of e- books, A small sketh of an ideal digital college library,The scenario of Lady Brabourne College Library, and finally , what should be the objective and focus of a college library regarding procurement and usage of e-documents.