Once in a while, a book comes along where each flip of the page brings more bliss as the plot captivates us. With the pages whittling down, our left hand is forced to bear the weight of those piled-up pages, signaling our body to hold our breath and gaze across the pages more slowly, hoping to stall the end.
The value of this physical experience while reading a book, magazine or newspaper has been increasingly debated as the digital world expands. People now have the option to store hundreds of books in a tablet or browse endless databases of articles. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought this debate up again as libraries close and society relies on the internet.
Rochelle Smith, the College of Letters Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Idaho humanities department library liaison and self-proclaimed luddite, doubts that print is going anywhere, pandemic or not.
“I think that reports on the death of print have been greatly exaggerated,” Smith said. “Even in 1997, people said ‘oh it’s going away.’”
After ten years assisting both students and staff with research projects, Smith finds that the two formats co-exist together very well. While a Kindle can haul unlimited literary choices anywhere, a traditional book will never run out of battery mid-chapter at the park.
The digital benefit of anywhere has been particularly important during the COVID-19 pandemic. Smith has witnessed the benefit of ebooks for remote learning, admitting that her department has purchased far more online material in 2020 than typical years.
However, Smith isn’t concerned about print’s return to popularity following the pandemic. A spine-bound book is a durable technology of its own that doesn’t require a replacement.
“The sensuality of reading a print book is really important to people,” Smith said. “The way a book’s paper feels on your hand, the way a book smells, the way fonts and ink make the words look on the page.”
But, perhaps popularity of print during the pandemic isn’t what this tangible industry should be most concerned with.
Cameron Martin, an English creative writing student in his final semester, shares that the production process is the area that has suffered most over the past year. A global supply chain stall in paper has backlogged printing companies’ ability to keep up with demand.
“In terms of means of production, there was difficulty maintaining print,” Martin said.
Martin can relate to an issue of excess desire for print books without the capacity to handle more. The stacks of books piled across his living room floor are beginning to rival the amount crammed onto at least eight bookshelves throughout the apartment.
Even so, Martin excitedly unboxed a new book of poetry and two journals during our interview.
The future of these two forms of print, books and journals, have a different fate in Martin’s opinion. As a writer himself, he values the ability to easily share his article publications over social media.
“As a writer, the idea of solely publishing a book online horrifies me,” Martin said.
As a consumer, he admits to rarely reading a print journal cover to cover. Instead, an online format gives convenient access to articles from across all the journal issues released. He finds that a physical loss is felt more when reading a book online.
An avid book collector, Martin views the loss of throwing away even a damaged book as sacrilegious. In our community, Martin is undoubtedly not the only one with an attachment to literature.
Bailey Gillreath-Brown, adult services manager at the Latah County Library, confirmed Moscow’s community library branch saw 20,000 more checkouts than Lewiston’s in 2020. Typically, this disparity is only around 10,000.
This demonstrates the commitment to reading that was preserved during pandemic times. Gillreath-Brown witnessed a large transition to ebook checkouts while the library’s doors were closed between mid-March and June.
Perhaps more shockingly, she reports that during the last year physical checkouts have gone from double that of digital checkouts to being nearly even.
Print circulation went down 62%.
“That’s the intuitive feeling we’ve had at the library, noticing that the shelves are full,” Gillreath-Brown said.
Despite this shift in format, our community is clearly continuing to engage with literature in many formats. Though, this isn’t the case for everyone.
Smith, Martin and Gillreath-Brown all admit to experiencing periods where their reading intake slowed to make room for taking in the events of the world. During the process of regaining an appetite for reading, they have employed a variety of techniques to make it a lighthearted experience.
“I gravitated towards books that sucked me in right away,” Gillreath-Brown, said. “There’s no shame in what draws you in, I find myself rereading my ‘comfort’ books during these times.”
Our campus and community are experiencing diverse impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic and reading appears to be no different. With print less accessible due to social distancing restrictions or lack of paper, some have taken advantage of digital formats. Others have taken the opportunity to enjoy the comfort of curling up with a familiar story.
The debate for print’s relevance continues to ebb and flow. Initially, the pandemic has favored digital formats. Yet, things may soon take a turn as people are further tied to their screens and begin seeking for leisure elsewhere.
Sumit
Hii