Harland et al. (2010)

Harland, P., Plante, A., Marker, J., Falter, C., Thompson, K., Guilmett, K., & Hogan, M. (2010). The high school book club -- now with Kindles!. Teacher Librarian, 37(5), 57-59. Retrieved November 2, 2011, from Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts with Full Text.

In this case study a high school librarian reports the reactions of a high school book group to the acquisition and use of Kindle e-book readers. In the fall of 2009 the club began using Kindles to read their books. The librarian allowed them to acquire any title they wanted (patron-driven acquisition). Through direct quotes from student participants, the article mentions usability issues, including:

• Lack of backlighting, which had pros (didn't light up the room at night) and cons (couldn't read it riding home in the car at night)
• Carrying around so many books in such a small device
• Ease of adding new books; being able to read a book within minutes of becoming aware of the book
• Easier to hold than a big book
• "... on the Kindle I can make notes, highlight passages, and look up words in the online dictionary."
• No one liked the text-to-speech function (which may be upgraded by now).

Other observations:

• At first the discussion in the book club focused on the device rather than the books.
• Students reported reading many more books because they enjoyed using the Kindle; the article doesn't indicate if this was a temporary phenomenon.
• The librarian expressed reservations about the lack of a touch screen and color (which are now available).

On the question of preference of ebooks and traditional books:

Angela summed it up by saying, "I heard the Kindle is going to replace books, but I don't think so. It might replace text books, but not regular books. It may be cheaper and lighter, but people who are real book lovers will not stop buying and reading print books. I love my books and I want to look at the cover of a book and on the inside flaps. When I own a book I want to be able to hold it in my hands. Also, I make a connection to books based on the cover, spine, picture of the author, colors, paper type, and fonts. The Kindle is so much less personalized than the connection I make to regular books. I can't imagine a world when I don't smell a new book again."

My thoughts
The last quote is a good point of departure for my research project. I hear a lot of people saying this, but I bet that most people will adapt to e-book readers fairly quickly. I think 10 years from now the comment here will seem quaint. I'm thinking of designing a study where student perceptions of e-books and their preferences for traditional books are measured in a pre-survey, then students use e-book readers for a specified time, and then take the same survey to try to gauge their changes in perception. Since Harland et al. position this research report as an effort to "observe any changes in the students' reading behavior" following their use of Kindles, it is a point of departure for a more thorough study that I could design.