SMP PPG JANUARY 2012

OUMH 2203
ENGLISH FOR WORKPLACE COMMUNICATION
SEMESTER SEPTEMBER 2015

NAMA
MATRICULATION NO:

RADIAH BINTI NASRIPAN

800411125226001

IDENTITY CARD NO.

800411-12-5226

TELEPHONE NO.

0198212160

E-MAIL

radiah80@oum.edu.my

LEARNING CENTRE

TAWAU LEARNING CENTRE

CONTENTS

1.0 INTRODUCTION
2.0 PROBLEM AND SOLUTION #1
COST REDUCTION
3.0 PROBLEM AND SOLUTION #2
TRADITIONAL SKILLS VERSUS MODERN SKILLS
4.0 PROBLEM AND SOLUTION #3
RECORD AND DISCOVERABLE ISSUES
5.0 PROBLEM AND SOLUTION #4
CLARITY, ACCESSIBILITY AND RELIABILITY
6.0 CONCLUSION
7.0 REFERENCES

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Nowadays, the rapid growths of the resources on the Internet and other various
technologies have raised everyones concern in finding the reading materials. Rather than the
academic purpose, ones also tend to search for reading materials in order to look for
entertainment, productivity or marketing purpose. Recently, the terminology of accessibility
plays important role in finding or searching for information. However, as a librarian, I am
strongly agree that libraries should provide more books rather than invest on new technology
such as e-books and e-journals.
The revolution of internet plays important role in the accessibility to the other part of our
world. However, the printed materials are more authentic and genuine as they cannot be
produced by insignificant people. Besides, the reliability of the printed resources cannot be
denied as it approved by momentous organizations before it being published. Even though we
are living in the world where everything is online, however, we still require the steadfastness
in our life.
It is understandable that the library nowadays wants to provide the suitable resources
parallel to the modernization of the 21st century. However, there are certain aspects that
should be taken care in order to avoid the problems that are happening while using the
e-books and e-journals. The management of the library should review the advantages and
disadvantages of using all the online resources. Furthermore, using the printed materials and
books as the main resources is more trustworthy rather than the online resources.
In this report, there are four issues that have been enlightened in order to show the
fundamentals of printed books rather than e-books or e-journals. The issues that will be
discussed are cost reduction, traditional skills versus modern skills, record and discoverable
issues, and clarity & accessibility.

2.0 PROBLEM AND SOLUTION #1 COST REDUCTION

In the first issue, which is the cost reduction, some publishers are rushing to convert their
printed journals to e-journal form in order to reduce the cost of publication. However, it is not
exactly helping them from reducing the cost. Obviously, not all of the publishers have the
department of information and technology that will help them to convert their reading
materials into online materials. Thus, the publishers tend to sell the online resources at really
high price to the library out there. Besides, not all of the publishers have the knowledge of
information and technology. Thus, they will spend a lot of money in building the online
system for their own company. Then, they will also spend a big amount of money to hire the
experts in information and technology in order to help them to convert everything to online
resources. Rather than saving money, the process of converting everything to online resources
will only cost them a lot of investments. Hence, everything will increase the cost for the
library to spend on.
In addition, using the online resources require pricey electronic devices in order to ensure
everything will run smoothly. Using the old devices or machines will only create slow and
lousy system for online resources. Hence, converting the printed materials to online in order
to save money is totally out of track. Producing online resources also need a really great
system so that everything that published online will not be plagiarised by the other users. So,
the online publishers need to spend a lot of money to buy secured system in order to protect
their online journals and books. Indirectly, it will also lead to the high price of online
resources rather than printed materials. So, the library will spend a lot of money in buying the
online resources provided by the online publication companies.
Strong technical support should also being appointed by the publication company.
Developing the online journals and books require the publication company to be smart and
sophisticated in marketing world. Nowadays, since everything is online, being creative and
critical is all they need. For example, rather than using the ready-made search engines, the
publication companies can also develop their own search engine system in their online site.
Thus, every e-books and e-journals can be bought from their online site.

On the other hand, the library will spend a lot of money in buying the desktop, laptop or
any other machines that will help the readers to access the online resources. Even though it

can be used for a long period of time, but the cost of repairing and maintaining it will be
really high. On the contrary, using the printed materials will save a lot of money since it will
not require any maintaining cost.
According to the online survey made by one of the online publication companies, Safari,
most of the users agree that they need to use the printed books in addition to the online
resources. Thus, it is proven that, e-books and e-journals are not enough as the resources. So,
the library still needs to provide the printed materials as an addition. Hence, it will not help to
reduce the cost instead, it will lead to extra cost of publication.
Disagree
Agree Don't
Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Know
I need to use printed books in
addition to Safari

1.1%

4.9%

9.9%

56.6%

26.9%

0.5%

I use a wider range of books

in Safari than I would consult in
the Library

5.9%

23.8%

18.9%

40%

10.3%

1.1%

I usually only need to consult one

chapter

1.6%

26.9%

21%

43%

7%

0.5%

Access to Safari has improved my

work

0.5%

4.3%

26.5%

53%

14.1%

1.6%

Safari has saved me time

1.1%

5.4%

13.4% 59.1%

19.4%

1.6%

Safari has saved me buying a

book

1.6%

11.9%

16.2% 35.7%

31.9%

2.7%

I would be interested in other

electronic book services
besidesSafari

0.5%

2.2%

8.6%

43.5%

1.6%

43.5%

Table 1: Use of Safari to support learning

In a nutshell, using the online resources is an expensive undertaking for any publication
companies. So, as the librarian, I am strongly disagree using the online resources will help to
reduce the cost that the library need to spend.

3.0 PROBLEM AND SOLUTION #2 TRADITIONAL SKILLS VERSUS MODERN

SKILLS

As everyone knows, the online publication will require all the information and technology
skills to be practiced in both library and publication companies. Thus, all of the traditional
skills will not be needed anymore in the new era of publication. As for using technology to
find the e-books or e-journals, even though the searching method is easier as readers only
need to type in the keywords in the search engine and thousands of compatible results will
come out rather than the traditional method of going through the list of tons of books before
finding the right one, I believe it is still not an effective way of finding a book.
In order to search the most suitable books, readers need to have at least basic information
and technology skills to allow them to use the search engines. However, this situation might
not be a problem for the young generations, but it will be considered as a trouble for the older
generation. They are living in the century where all of the basic and traditional skills are
needed in order to search the most suitable books for them. In addition, they are also not
really exposed to the latest innovations and technologies. Moreover, the results shown after
searching for the online book probably will about the books with certain criteria such as the
books that are best-selling or written by well-known authors. Hence, there is a limitation for
the readers to search the other genres of books as everything is filtered online
Recently, there is a new innovation created by the management of library, which is WebBased OPAC, which enable the physical books reader to search for the book according to the
number of shelves provided in the library. I believe the technology invented help the readers
to find the printed materials or books and it will not cause any nuisance for them. Hence, this
situation makes the readers easier and they will not need any e-journals or e-books anymore.
Other than that, the usage of Web Based OPAC is very easy and did not require many laptops
or PCs. From my experience, each library can provide one computer with the Web Based
OPAC software and let the user use it in order to get the correct book from the correct
shelves.

According to Nagabhushanam Chinta (2013) in his research entitled A

Study of Web-Based OPACs Services in India shows that the major
limitation of online catalogues investigated is that most libraries did not

have their own website as well as lacking in amalgamate search facilities.

In this situation, it will cause the users to prefer the web search engines
rather than to library catalogues as they need to find answers in a short
time rather than spending a lot of time skimming and scanning through
tons of books on the shelves. Thus, every library can develop their own
websites or portals with the features of Web-Based OPAC in order to let
the users to use the printed books as their main resources of information.
On the other hand, the software can also help them to check the
availability of the book in a very short of time.
Hence, even though the modern libraries have complete facilities in
order to improve the accommodation of the library, but still, the traditional
skills in book searching is still needed. For example, labelling and
arranging books require the human energy instead of technology.
Nevertheless, the traditional skill in supervision the library is very useful in
order to produce a great library.

4.0 PROBLEM AND SOLUTION #3 RECORD AND DISCOVERABLE ISSUES

As we know, all of the e-journals and e-books are produced in the digital format. All
of the formats are combined by using the binary numbers 10 or 01 and etc. The creators of the
digital library should always beware about the internet disease that has been spread around
nowadays. As the inventions of technology grow rapidly, the same thing is happening to the
viruses of the electronic devices. Hence, the record and discoverable issues are the issues
where the physical books are better than the digital library.
All of the books produced by the online publication company are recorded by the
management of internet resources. Every detail about the books is secured in the system of
online library. However, the security of the system still cannot be proven until today. Rather
than the digital library, the physical libraries keep all the records written and physically
secured. Any information about the books will be recorded and kept safely in an organization
files. Thus, I am strongly believed that the physical library provides better security than the
electronic library.
Meanwhile, for the discoverable issue regarding the digital versus physical library, all
of the records about the digital books can be easily harmed by the presence of viruses on the
online resources. Once the data attacked by the unknown viruses, everything will be lost.
Thus, the discoverable of the books or records will not be happened. Thus, in order to keep
everything safely secured, the libraries should provide more useful books rather than
investing money on the online journals or books.
The physical library should start to take precaution steps in order to keep the books
longer and durable. All of the books should be recorded and kept in the dry places. The
shelves should not be made by the woods. It is better if the shelves are made by the metals or
aluminium in order to save the books from the termites. The condition of the books must
always be cared by the librarian.
Hence, the issues of record and discoverable are not presence in the online or digital
library. Thus, I suggest that, the libraries should provide more books rather than spending
money on buying the online books or journals.

5.0 PROBLEM AND SOLUTION #4 CLARITY, ACCESSIBILITY AND

RELIABILITY

The other problems of online resources are clarity, accessibility and reliability. As a
librarian, it is totally my job to ensure the clarity of the books is presence. The clarity of the
book can be proven when the readers are totally understood about the titles and content of the
books. I believe that, all the printed materials are sent to the proof-check before it totally
released to all of the libraries. Thus, there is no clarity problem for the printed materials or
books. However, the online books or journals are written by various people around the world.
Everything is written online and they are not compulsory to have a proof-check. Thus, the
clarity of the online resources cannot be proven by the online authors.
Meanwhile, the accessibility of the printed materials and books is totally limited. But,
limited is not exactly inaccessible. Many books provided on the online resources are
distributed digitally without any filters. However, the accessibility of the books is totally not
safe. For the adults, they have the potential in filtering the good and bad books. But, what is
happen to the children that are using the online resources? They will be exposed to the not
suitable books. Some of them might be misused the online resources that provide
accessibility to all of the readers. Hence, I believed that physical books are totally better than
the digital books. So, the library should work on providing more books rather than spending
money on the unsecured electronic e-books.
The issue of reliability is also famous among the librarian. We keep thinking about how
the readers will acknowledge the reliability of the resources that they found. In this modern
era, many people tend to plagiarise everything that they found online. The online resources
are easier to be copied by the others. However, the printed materials are not easily copied by
the other authors. Thus, the printed materials and books are more reliable than the online
books.
Hence, in order to preserve the advantages of the physical libraries, the management of
the library should always provide more books rather than spending money on the e-books or
e-journals.

6.0 CONCLUSION

In a conclusion, there are many advantages of using printed materials for both librarians
and readers. Even though we are living in the modern centuries which require everything
online, but books have exception on it. Hence, I believe that libraries should
provide more books rather than invest in new technology such as
computers and e-books as there are more cons than pros in the usage of
technology as the main way to encourage people to read. The reasons as
to why I am suggesting that libraries should provide more books as
opposed to investing in new technology are because books are easier to
be accessed, it does not require a lot of money or energy to buy them, it
has better durability and readers are less likely to be distracted to do
other things or exposed to obscenity when reading a book.
Libraries should be aiming on allowing people to connect their reading
experiences not only physically but also mentally and emotionally so the
readers can fully understand the contents of the books they are reading
and find meaning behind it. It does not really matter which types of books
one is preferred more either physical and digital books or it can be both as
we all have our own preferences. At the end of the day, with all the
options available today, there is simply no way to not enjoy reading.

Reported by,

(RADIAH NASRIPAN)
Librarian.

7.0 REFERENCES

Chinta, N. (2013). A study of web-based opacs services in india. e-Library

Science Research

Journal. Vol. 1 (4).

Doctorow, C. (2011, March 8). E-books: durability is a feature, not a bug.

Retrieved from

http://www.theguardian.com

John, C. (2004, October 1). Challenges and opportunities. Retrieved October 8, 2015, from
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/october04/cox/10cox.html

Susan, S. (2014, October 1). The book vs ebook. Retrieved October 8, 2015, from
http://scholarcommons.sc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1013&context=scl_journal