Print this articleEmail this articleDear EDITOR,

I just want to underline a statement of Dr Mataim Bakar, Director of Research, Development and International Affairs of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports. In his speech at the workshop on library recently, he said that "electronic-books should not be seen as a threat to printed books in libraries as they can mutually complement one another to produce a knowledgeable society" (The Brunei Times, July 20, 2010, A6).

I think the real threat to the library is lack of space, bad information management as well as library service and hospitality. The latter ones had already been mentioned by Dr Mataim.

He was right when said that the digital books are not a threat because they come from scanning process of the printed books. The existence of both of e-books and printed books can mutually complement each other but the thing is they have positive and negative sides with its respective characteristics.

One of the benefits of digital book is that it can save space of a library instead of collecting the printed books and documents which require a larger area. For institutions with small space, these e-books are definitely very helpful. Even, people can bring hundreds or thousands of e-books in their pocket through a digital gadget.

Unfortunately, there are not many e-books available on certain themes, especially those which linked to Brunei and its history.

However, two years ago I downloaded free an e-book on Bruneian culture by senior author Yura Halim from an Asean website. The book apparently was scanned from a book entitled Adat Mengulum Bahasa published by the Language and Literature Bureau of Brunei Darussalam (Second edition, 2006).

However, e-books are not very convenient to read as they depend on gadgets and not many people have these sophisticated gadgets. Besides, they put strain on eyes. One feels exhausted after reading an e-book because of the rays emitted from the computer, laptop or other digital gadgets.

On the other hand, printed books can be read anywhere, even while in toilet or on public transport, or while laying down somewhere in bedroom, park, beach, etc. This is the positive side of the printed book which can not be replaced by the digital one.

In short, a research or finding info/data out can be conducted through both of e-books or Internet and the printed books. The info/data not available in the printed books/physical library, can be found through e-books/Internet or vice versa.

Hopefully, it's better for some institutions in Brunei, particularly educational, to have many e-books for their libraries to mutually complement each other as said by Dr Mataim Bakar.

Yusuf Iqbal,

Gadong