Imagine having access to thousands of books in the palm of your hand. Advances with online publications as well as student access to mobile applications make the idea of virtual text not as farfetched as some may have thought. 
   E-books, the virtual counterpart to hard and paperback books, are also seeking to expand the number of book choices available on mobile devices and tablets allowing students easy access to books available in the school media center. 
  “Ebooks make it so that you don’t have to carry all of your books around school and so that they are all in the same place on your eReader or phone,” Aaliyah Haynes, sophomore, said.
   E-readers, dedicated portable reading devices, are a very popular choice among avid readers. The ability to access the same content through popular devices such as iPhones, Android phones, and popular tablet devices such as the iPad, is aimed at reaching a greater number of students.
   “With eBooks, students can take their books with them anywhere they go just by whipping out their phones, eReaders, or even their tablets,” Mark Howell, Media Center Department Head, said.
    Allowing students to access books virtually would prove to be a much more inexpensive way of distributing content to students and would make it easier for publishers to stay up to date with their content.
   According to a recent study by the Book Industry Study Group (BISG), readers are showing increased loyalty to digital books where nearly half of digital book buyers would skip getting a printed copy from a favorite author if an electronic version were to also be available.
      “The technology is so new, and it is changing so fast, but I would agree that using eBooks would be putting the technology available to us in the right direction,” Howell said.
   Hillsborough County left the program choice up to each individual school, but Howell decided to utilize the Baker & Taylor program for Wharton’s media center.

   “Because Hillsborough County supports the Baker & Taylor program, they would be able to help fund books for the eBook collections which would ultimately help increase the amount of content available for students,” Howell said.

   Content providers such as the Amazon Kindle Marketplace, Barnes & Noble Nook Store, as well as the Apple iBook Store have been pushing paid content to students for years for their dedicated reading devices.

   However, the digital media library through Baker & Taylor is targeting students who are looking to check out books for a two week time period on their portable devices as well as on their computer for free.

   “With the eBook program, students wouldn’t have to worry about coming in to the library to return their books after two weeks,” Howell explained. “Instead, the books would be given back through their devices, in what I hope will be, automatically.”

   Baker & Taylor’s Axis 360 program provides tools within their eBooks, including Blio reading software, to help teachers engage students in reading using illustrative concepts that are unavailable with paperback equivalents.

   At this time, some of the popular titles that will be available to students at the beginning of the program will include the Hunger Game series, the Shiver series, as well as SAT preparation books. Howell wishes to build the collection over time.

   “My goal is to try and have some of the most popular series of books available to students at the beginning of the program, but I would also like to incorporate the summer reading titles as well as titles from the Florida Teen Read list into the program,” Howell said.

   One issue that may be attached to this new way of accessing books is the school’s digital device ban. Currently, students are not allowed to use mobile phones, computers, or tablets throughout the school day. If the new eBook program succeeds, Wharton administration would have to reconsider allowing students to have access to their devices during the school day.

   “The cell phone and electronic policies are written in stone through district policies,” Principal Bradley Woods explained. “However, there are ways that it could be addressed through school-improvement waivers that go before the school board for approval, as well as the district itself that may make changes to the policy as more and more of the technology becomes electronic.”

   Although the program is aimed to benefit students in the classrooms as well as at home, it would still be left up to the teacher as to whether or not they prefer to adopt the system for everyday use.

   “I think that some teachers may be skeptical about the program because it would still be phones and electronics that students would take out in class and they might not be able to trust everyone, but I think for the most part that teachers would be okay with out,” Haynes said.

   Considering the popularity of mobile devices and the wide acceptance by students to use eBooks as an alternative to printed media, the new Axis 360 program by Baker & Taylor is expected to benefit Wharton students not only by introducing them to new technologies, but also to advanced tools to help improve their daily curriculum.