Digital Textbooks: Reading the Landscape Frederic Murray Assistant Professor MLIS, University of British Columbia BA, Political Science, University of Iowa Instructional Services Librarian Al Harris Library

Text in Historical Light Clay Tablets Papyrus Bound Books Printing Hypertext

Digital Culture How will a dominantly electronic culture differ from the print-centered culture we have known these past few centuries? –Sven Birkerts "The Fate of the Book." Antioch Review (2001):

Question of Function To see the book in historical light is to see it as technology… ….one that has always wrought disruptive change.

Textbook Cost: Sustainable? Students spend between $700 & $1000 a year on textbooks (Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance. 2007) College textbooks rose at twice the rate of inflation over the last two decades ( GAO 2006 Study)

Rising Cost of Textbooks Used Book Market Bundling w/CDs, workbooks, online supplements Concealment of Prices

The College Textbook Affordability Act 2008 Help make textbook costs more manageable by providing students with advance information on textbook prices in course schedules and ensuring faculty have full textbook pricing information when making purchasing decisions; Require publishers to include information about textbook price, history of revisions, and lower-priced alternatives when marketing a book to faculty; Require publishers who bundle course material to offer the textbooks and supplemental material in unbundled versions.

Rising Costs Publishing Industry has undergone massive wave of consolidations Textbook market lacks traditional market mechanisms that regulate price

How will Digital Culture Differ? We need new business models Leverage the economics of digital distribution in favor of our students

Digital Textbooks- A Promising Solution Production Costs Control over Textbook Format Open Up the Market for Competition

Digital Textbooks Done Right Must Meet Three Criteria –Affordable –Printable –Accessible Student Public Interest Resource Group 2008

Digital Textbooks Done Wrong E-textbooks are too expensive E-textbooks are difficult and costly to print E-textbooks are difficult to access

E-textbooks surveyed cost on average exactly the same as a new hard copy and twice the cost of a used hard copy E-textbooks surveyed cost on average 39% more than a used hard copy COST *Course Correction: How Digital Textbooks are Off Track

E-textbook printing on CourseSmart is limited to 10 pages per session. The cost of buying an e-textbook & printing all of the pages is twice of the cost of buying a new hard copy and selling it back to the bookstore. PRINT *Course Correction: How Digital Textbooks are Off Track

Access is limited to either online or offline on a single computer Online Version: Log in on any computer Downloadable Version: Choose one machine, desktop? laptop? ACCESS *Course Correction: How Digital Textbooks are Off Track

Digital Textbooks Done Right Open textbooks are affordable Open textbooks are easy & inexpensive to print Open textbooks are accessible

What is an Open Textbook? (That's what we're working to define) We know it has to be: free, or very nearly free, easy to use, get and pass around, editable so instructors can customize content, cross-platform compatible, Printable, and accessible so it works with adaptive technology.

Open Textbooks Open textbooks are textbooks distributed free digitally under an open license. The key feature of an open license is that it permits users to make copies of the textbook and translate it into different formats.

Open Textbooks Open textbooks start as digital textbooks, but can become printed pages, a hardbound book, or even audio files.

Open Textbooks Open textbooks accomplish what e-textbooks do not: –Low Prices –Printing Options –Accessibility

Open Textbooks are Affordable Open textbooks are free digitally and students have the option to use the book online or print or purchase a hard copy of the book.

Open textbooks are Easy & Inexpensive to Print An open license allows students to reproduce the textbook in any format at any time.

Open Textbooks are Accessible Accessibility: online, offline, on any computer, future access.

Who’s Doing What? Fall 2009 Florida State Universities: Free downloads w/Orange Grove Text Plus California State Universities are creating a digital marketplace Rice University created a digital repository NW Missouri State, Penn State & Princeton are giving out EReaders

Florida: 124 books in an open text format University of Florida Press with support from the state’s digital library database

California State University System

Rice University: Connections

Private Sector Initiatives Flatworld Knowledge Freeload Press

Flatworld Knowledge

Freeload Press

Places to Buy Digital Textbooks ( But I wouldn’t) #1 ZinioZinio Students can save up to 50 percent when they forgo print textbooks for the digital textbooks offered through Zinio. The site offers textbooks in a wide range of categories. If you've never tried digital textbooks before and want to check them out, download the free sample offered though Zinio. #2 iChaptersiChapters More than two million people visit iChapters each month to save a guaranteed 50 percent on digital textbooks. iChapters sells entire texts and also offers individual chapters and audio books for as little as $1.99 each. #3 CourseSmartCourseSmart Students can save significant cash when they buy one of the 5,000 textbook titles available though CourseSmart. The average CourseSmart shopper saves $60 on every digital textbook purchased. #4 eCampus.comeCampus.com This website has always been a popular source of low-cost textbooks and has recently expanded to begin offering digital textbooks. More than 3,000 titles are currently available. #5 McGraw-Hill eBookStoreMcGraw-Hill eBookStore McGraw-Hill offers more than 900 of their print textbooks in digital form though their eBookstore. The digital versions are identical to print versions, but cost an average of 50 percent less. McGraw-Hill's digital versions can be highlighted, annotated and bookmarked.

Places to Buy Digital Textbooks ( But I wouldn’t) #6 Taylor and Francis eBookstoreTaylor and Francis eBookstore Taylor and Francis is another academic publisher that has decided to make their books available for download online. Students can buy entire books, chapters or specific pages. #7 Books on BoardBooks on Board Books on Board does not have as many digital textbooks as some of the other sites on this list, but the site is still worth checking out. Students can save anywhere from a $2 to $100 off the cover price. #8 Vital Source BookshelfVital Source Bookshelf Students can quickly and easily download their required textbooks through Vital Source Bookshelf. The site works with a wide variety of publishers and campus resellers to bring students digital versions of the most popular textbooks. #9 CafeScribeCafeScribe CafeScribe is dedicated to helping students save both money and trees via digital textbooks. The site offers a number of interesting features that other sites don't offer, including the ability to share notes, start groups and highlight text inside digital textbooks. #10 Universal Digital Textbooksniversal Digital Textbooks Universal Digital Textbooks, also known as DigitalTextbooks.com or Digitaltextbooks.net, isn't a direct source for ebooks, but it is a site that can be used to activate the digital textbook cards that you can buy from your local/campus bookstore. The site has a test section that will tell you whether or not your system is eBooks-capable.

Online Swap Site

Conclusions Publishers should adjust their course to meet the criteria –Heavily restricted & costly format –Old traditional sales model is bust –Redesign the model to fit the product

Conclusions Faculty should give preference to open textbooks whenever pedagogically appropriate Colleges should provide support for open textbooks/digital content Recognize that 700 years of experience with paper is a huge challenge to surmount

Digital Textbooks Open Textbooks Affordable Printable Accessible E-Textbooks Costly Limited Restrictive

A Torrent of Textbooks

Bibliography College Bookstores/Online Sites Young, Jeffery. "College Bookstores Move to Put Electronic Textbooks on Their Shelves." Chronicle of Higher Education: The Wired Campus 16 April 2009: Web. 12 Oct Young, Jeffery. "College Bookstores Hope to Turn Their Web Sites into E-Book Portals." Chronicle of Higher Education: The Wired Campus 24 September 2009: Web. 12 Oct Terris, Ben. "Florida Lightens the Financial (and Physical) Burden of Textbooks." Chronicle of Higher Education: The Wired Campus 25 September 2009: Web. 12 Oct Thibodeaux, Brandon. "Do Study Sites Make the Grade?" Wall Street Journal 09 April 2009: Web. 12 Oct Gross, Sylvia. "Paper cut; Missouri College Embraces E- Textbooks." NPR. 23 February National Public Radio, Web. 13 Oct "Open Textbooks." Orange Grove: Open Textbooks. 28 September Florida Distance Learning Consortium, Web. 12 Oct "10 Places to Buy Digital Textbooks Online." Degree Directory. 10 October degreedirectory.org, Web. 12 Oct "Sick and tired of overpriced college textbooks?." Textbook Revolt. 10 October Textbook Revolt, Web. 12 Oct "Welcome To Flat World Knowledge." Flat World Knowledge. 10 October Flat World Knowledge, Inc., Web. 12 Oct Make Textbooks Affordable. 10 October Web. 13 Oct Digital Textbooks Wiley, David. "Digital Textbooks Call for New Business Models." The Chronicle of Higher Education: The Wired Campus 08 July 2009: Web. 13 Oct Catone, Josh. "Digital Textbooks: 3 Reasons Students Aren't Ready." Mashable: The Social Media Guide. 17 August Edgecast, Web. 12 Oct Baker, Judy. "It Takes a Consortium to Support Open Textbooks." Educause Review 44.1 (January/February 2009): Web. 13 Oct Allen, Nicole. "Course Correction: How Digital Textbooks Are Off Track & How To Set Them Straight." Educause Review 44.1 (January/February 2009): Web. 13 Oct Pauli, Michelle. "Libraries of the Future." Ariadne 55 April (2008): Web. 12 Oct Carr, John. "A Torrent of Textbooks." Information Today November (2008): 51. Golshani, Forouzan. "Digital Textbooks." IEEE 15.2 April- June (2008): Nelson, Mark. "Is Higher Education ready to Switch to Digital Course Materials?" The Chronicle of Higher Education: Commentary 28 November 2008: Web. 12 Oct Carlson, Scott. "Online Textbooks Fail to Make the Grade." Chronicle of Higher Education: Technology 11 February 2005: Web. 12 Oct Carty, Susan. "The digital textbook is coming!." Information Searcher 12.1 (2000): 3-7. Web. 12 Oct 2009.

Bibliography E-Books Safley, Ellen. "Demand for E-books in an Academic Library." Journal of Library Administration. 45.3/4 (2006): Print. Carlson, Scott. "How to Channel the Data Deluge in Academic Research." Chronicle of Higher Education: Information Technology 04 April 2008: Web. 12 Oct Lewis, David. "Library budgets, open access, and the future of scholarly communication." November Creative Commons Attribution, Web. 12 Oct Future of the Book Birkerts, Sven. "The fate of the Book." Antioch Review (2001): Print. Giraldi, William. "A Conversation with Sven Birkerts." Missouri Review. Summer. (2006): Print. Wright, Alex. Glut: Mastering Information Through the Ages. Washington D.C.: Joesph Henry Press, Print. Roediger, Henry. "Why Are Textbooks So Expensive." APS Observer 18.1 (2005): Web. 12 Oct Darnton, Robert. "Google & the Future of Books." New York Review of Books 12 February 2009: Web. 12 Oct Stross, Randall. "Will Books Be Napsterized." The New York Times 04 October 2009: Web. 12 Oct 2009.

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