I like books. I have been reading them ever since I learned how to read in the first grade in 1940. I like owning books, a practice that began at about age 10 with light fare, mostly novels about cowboys and Tarzan. In time, the school library became my favorite place on campus, a place where I was entertained, informed and challenged.

Over the course of 12 years of academic preparation in four disciplines, I built up a personal library of texts, learned tomes, books on subjects that intrigued me and fun reading, like novels. Representatives from textbook publishing companies often gave me copies of new books in the hope that I would adopt them for the texts to be used by students in my classes.

In a few years, I had libraries in my office on campus and at home, thousands of books. My late wife, Annette, added to the home library with a collection of classics, series of cookbooks, contemporary novels and scores of books for grandchildren.

As retirement neared, I concluded that our house would not hold all of my university books and donated hundreds of them to Georgia Southern Library, the Statesboro Regional Library and Brewton Parker College. Even so, there are books in most rooms of my roomy house and I need to dispose of most of them in some appropriate way.

Recently, I decided that it would be a good thing to donate books to libraries in some of the smaller towns around, some that do not have the resources of Statesboro Regional. Our special niece, Cheryl Allen, filled as many boxes as she could fit into her SUV and set out to bless a library with my treasures. To her surprise and mine, she was told that said library did not want my books. Well, eventually, most were accepted.

Thus, did I learn of the changing nature of libraries. They are becoming resource and information centers that provide electronic technology necessary to link users to needed information or the texts of novels. The amount of content stored on the Internet is vast and grows rapidly every day. E-books are replacing print material in many places. They do not require shelf space or collect dust.

Books that are stored on the web and electronically copied to a computer or tablet for reading and local storage are not new. Our son, Gary, has provided reading material in this format for several years. It has certain advantages over reading from traditional books. The font (size of letters) is adjustable, a plus for fading eyesight. The readers are lighter, more manageable for tired, arthritic hands. The greatest advantage is the vast amount of material available to those who have the technology and know how to use it.

Nevertheless, I still like books. I am, without apology, a child of the 20th century, not even the late 20th century. I want to own books, dog-earing them to mark spots to which I wish to return for any of many reasons. I want to underline text and write tiny notes at strategic points. Books can be extensions of the mind and heart.

I like the smell of a new book, somehow similar to the smell of a new car. It teases of the thrill of ownership of something especially valued and promising. Some old books have a faint, lingering aroma that speaks of age and worth. Yes, I do like books, substantial objects of paper, ink and some sort of binding, preferably leather.

Roger G. Branch Sr. is professor emeritus of sociology at Georgia Southern University and is a retired pastor.