Hard copy books still seem to be the popular choice amongst readers in the southeast.

Carolyn Graham, Head Librarian at theb Jake Epp Library, says in 2018 they checked out a total of 266,000 books compared to 254,000 in 2017.

"So that's a good increase," she adds.

Graham says nearly 27,000 of the books checked out last year were electronic books through eLibraries Manitoba. Although ebook numbers went up by over 7,000, she notes the old school way still seems to be the most popular choice.

"The vast majority is still obviously reading actual paper but there definitely is an increase in the ebook usage. Even before we saw our stats we knew that would happen because we're getting a lot more requests about it."

Graham adds a lot of seniors who travel south are going the electronic route because it is a lot easier to take one device along as opposed to a bag full of books on a plane.

She says there is just nothing quite the same as sitting back and paging your own book.

"It's still the comfort and the security and just the relaxing part of just sitting with my book and paging."