A digital text has the ability to engage the reader with a narrative and develop a personal connection to the storytelling (Sukovic, 2014). These texts serve a purpose of building the reader’s level of engagement and understanding their meaning in terms of storytelling or informative information. Many digital texts focus on improving the way that readers interpret information either as a transfer straight from a printed copy or presented as a layered transmedia narrative (Lamb, 2011). Having these texts presented in different digital formats, whether it be an interactive website or reading apps, will motivate the reader to expand their imagination and discover exciting new stories. It is interesting that so many of these digital texts rely solely on two things: a device with a screen and the ability to access the internet. Both factors present a whole new way of storytelling and engaging readers with all manner of digital content.
These digital texts present new ways to view and understand how a story can be structured as many open-ended narratives allow the reader to choose where they want the narrative to go. This allows the reader to have a choice in how they read interesting texts and what types of genres or series they become invested in. Scott (2013) encourages readers to incorporate the ability to alter font, size and the colour of text to improve their interaction with ebooks. This can be seen while borrowing books from their local library online site or purchasing texts to keep in personal digital library collections.
In the past, I have always strived to own printed copies of any text that I read in my personal library. Mainly for the nostalgia of the feeling of having a book in my hands, turning to the next page in excitement and especially having that new book smell! However, this concept that I have built in my head is now being balanced out with the idea of digital texts becoming a significant part of my life too. I used the app called Borrower Box to borrow the Andy Griffiths ebook through my local district library. I will use this method of borrowing more in the future to continue my digital reading habit. This method of borrowing has been an interesting way to view a digital collection that is readily available to the user at the press of a button. It is also interesting as ebooks are returned for you automatically once they expire at the return date.
Building my love and reading of quality literature can now be sourced from multiple places, whether it be from a book store or borrowing ebooks from my local library. Scardilli (2019) highlights that the popularity and appreciation of digital texts does not change as people are still engaged in reading their favourite narratives in a more flexible format (p. 13). This comparison of printed texts does limit readers with how a physical story is formatted when compared to an interactive digital text. Digital library collections certainly are more flexible in the management of a library. These digital collections reduce the amount of space and attention needed that physical collections continuously warrant when managing a library service.
The digital text I enjoyed the most was The Boat (Huynh, 2015) as it represented and displayed a time in history that was tough for so many people from Vietnam. I was able to fully immerse myself in the storytelling and view the entire narrative through the eyes of each character. It made me incredibly sad to know that this is what these people had to go through, and many people still are to this day as these refugee issues are still present in our society. I believe this digital text could be incorporated into a high school English or Creative Arts unit of work in years nine to twelve (Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) Learn, 2016). This digital text could be used to focus on the hardships that refugees have gone through in the past. Particularly the artworks and storytelling could be the primary focus for teaching about the hardships of refugees. The text could be further linked with the phrase known as ‘boat people’ to distinguish the struggle that refugees have faced during immigration periods.
Using this digital text as a starting point, students can research further into the historical impacts that refugees have experienced from all over the world. Murphy (2019) encourages libraries to share their resources, particularly when focusing on new ways to innovate readers to research and discover new information (p. 181). This causes readers to expand the way that they think and allows them to explore new sources of information that can assist them while searching a variety of library catalogues.
References
Huynh, M. (2015). The Boat. Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) Australia. Retrieved from http://www.sbs.com.au/theboat/
Lamb, A. (2011). Reading redefined for a transmedia universe. Learning & Leading with Technology, 39(3), 12-17. Retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=623dbb2e-4796-4807-94cb-3259daaf12bd%40pdc-v-sessmgr04&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=67371172&db=ehh
Murphy, J. A. (2019). Ebook sharing models in academic libraries. Serials Review, 45(3), 176-183. DOI: 10.1080/00987913.2019.1644934
Scardilli, B. (2019). The state of ebooks in libraries. Information Today, 36(2), 12-14. Retrieved from http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=57be2bfa-dc2a-49bf-935a-48db74589f8c%40sessionmgr4008
Scott, E. (2013). A look at eBook platforms for the school library. The School Librarian, 61(4), Retrieved from https://ezproxy.csu.edu.au/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/docview/1467996481?accountid=10344
Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) Learn. (2016). The Boat. SBS Australia. Retrieved from https://www.sbs.com.au/programs/go-back-to-where-you-came-from/article/2015/07/14/boat
Sukovic, S. (2014). iTell: Transliteracy and digital storytelling. Australian Academic and Research Libraries, 45(3), 205-229. Retrieved from https://ezproxy.csu.edu.au/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/docview/1613911853?accountid=10344
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