Books vs. Netlibrary/Online Books/Kindle

So, I work at a library on my college campus and know quite a bit about books and the upcoming netlibrary. As far as it goes, there are pros and cons to having one over the other. On the one hand, books are physical and have to be picked up and checked out at a library. You have a certain amount of time before you have to return the book, but it is physically in your hands and you can mark it up if you own it and need to remember something. Netlibrary, or online books, can only be viewed on a computer. You can take it pretty much anywhere or access it anywhere, though, without the hassle of having to go to a library. As far as I know, as soon as you have the book, you can keep it on your computer. There are many other pros and cons to both, but those are the ones I know of off the top of my head. My question to B and B is this: given that the world is moving in a technologically literate society and many thing, if not everything, rely on technology, which of the two would you rather prefer? Physical copies of books (whether you own it, it's in a store, or you own it) or online books/netlibrary (online books that are accessible if you have a device or computer with the capability and internet)?

My personal opinion??? I am much more inclined to pick physical books over online books. People already spend so much time with their computers that it would be good to take a break and pick up a book to read. Reading off a screen, for me, is an arduous task, and I much rather prefer to have the book in my hand with flippable pages. I'm more a sucker for the traditional than the contemporary in this regard, and as such, I love to have the book in my hand. Granted, in the future, we may no longer have books in print and have everything online for people to access. But in the here and now, I'll take a book over a Kindle any day.

Edit: I'll open this topic to free debate over technology-dominated society vs. traditional-dominated society. It's quite relevant to this topic and is actually the greater underlying issue I'm looking at.

I work at my University's library also and I have noticed that there are a lot of NetBooks also.

I have a class, and the book for it is online, and I hate it. I cant take notes in it, and i have to use a computer just to read for the homework.

I would like to have a Kindle for text books, I think that would be useful for textbooks, but I hate having them online

The act of turning pages is nice. I really love sitting in bed with a good book in my hands. I feel like some of that feeling is lost in translation from physical to digital media. Now, I've only ever seen an eReader in the hands of a man sitting in front of me on a airplane but from what I gathered, the screen wasn't nearly as punishing on the eyes as a regular computer monitor.

I heard that not using a reading light is bad for you. If you read in low or dim light, you have to strain your eyes in order to read which can perhaps cause eye problems later on in life.

I wouldn't really want to read a whole book on a computer + so many distractions.

There are four calculus classes and for whatever reason they put them all in semester two (maybe because it requires to take advanced functions or be taking advanced functions at the same time and more people would have taken it by semester 2) Anyways, they only have enough calculus textbooks for 2.5 classes (luckily one of the classes is really small). To my luck, I am in the class that doesn't get a textbook but it is online if we want to use it. But I hate it and don't use it because it is online. I'd probably do better if I did use it though but i dont want to :S

I'm thinking of picking up a Nook. Looks a little better than the Kindle right now. I used to have a huge paperback library but I've slowly been giving them away over the past five years (bookcrossing.com). I'll keep a few books that have sentimental value to me but the idea of having a library at my fingertips is starting to outweigh being able to physically hold a book.

HowStuffWorks Article

Well, I looked at this article and it seems sound enough. My mom stressed to me a lot that reading in the dark was bad. Bottom line from the article: it's better to read with the light on, but if you don't, it's not a big deal. Anyways, the other possibility I didn't mention is to listen to books on tape or CD. My dad does this all the time and it's just like reading the book. You're just hearing it instead of seeing it. And, on top of hearing it, many books on tape or CD are told by the author, who know exactly the right inflections and pronunciations to use when reading to get the best meaning. Anyways, I find books on tape or CD are a good exchange for actually reading the book.

I'm old school, so I prefer just sitting down on a sofa and opening a book and feeling the pages in my hand. It's just a totally different feeling from holding something electronic. However, I do like the versatility of e-book readers.