Transcript Slide 1

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
[email protected]
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. 59.2 (2001): 259-270
Question of Function
• To see the book in historical light is to
see it as technology…
….one that has always wrought
disruptive change.
“When more and more students are
running from your core product, you
have a problem.”
- Jeff Shelstad
CEO, Flat World Knowledge
(Ex-editorial director at Prentice Hall Business Publishing)
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
80’s -Feet on the Street
• Bundling w/CDs,
workbooks, online
supplements
90’s Nuclear arms race
of supplements
• Concealment of
Prices
21st Mystery ISBN
Rising Costs
• Publishing Industry has undergone
massive wave of consolidations
– Pearson
- Wiley
– McGraw Hill - Cenage
• Textbook market lacks traditional
market mechanisms that regulate price
– Captive audience
– Little Competition
How will Digital Culture Differ?
• We need new business models
• Leverage the economics of digital
distribution in favor of our students
Recent Move to Open Models
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Academic Earth
MIT OpenCourseware initiative
Open Content Alliance
Center for Open & Sustainable Learning (COSL)
Open Courseware Consortium
iTunes U
• Richard Baraniuk on open-source learning via TED
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
COST
• 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
*Course Correction: How Digital Textbooks are Off Track
PRINT
• 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.
*Course Correction: How Digital Textbooks are Off Track
ACCESS
• 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?
*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?
We know it has to be:
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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:
Creative Commons
• Low Prices
• Reuse
• Printing Options
• Redistribute
• Accessibility
• Revise
• Remix
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?
2009/2010
• 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
• Textbook Media (Freeload Press)
• Flatworld Knowledge
TextBook Media
Flatworld Knowledge
Places to Buy Digital
Textbooks ( But I wouldn’t)
#1
Zinio
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
iChapters
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
CourseSmart
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.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 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 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 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 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 CafeScribe
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 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.
Digital Textbooks
Open Textbooks
• Affordable
• Printable
• Accessible
E-Textbooks
• Costly
• Limited
• Restrictive
Hardware Wars
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Sony Reader – Princeton $280.00
Kindle 2 - Abilene Christine $259.00
iPad - $499.00
Seem to foster a false sense of
urgency….where’s the data that these
make students better learners?
• Digital textbooks should be an adaptive
response to the changing landscape of
Higher Education.
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
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.
Libraries Respond
• Ebrary/NetLibrary
• CUNY Book Factsheet
• S. 1714: Open College
Textbook Act of 2009
• H.R. 3221: Student Aid
and Fiscal
Responsibility Act of
2009
• H.R. 1464: Learning
Opportunities With
Creation of Open
Source Textbooks
(LOW COST) Act of
2009
Dark Nets
• Myescience.com
– forum that people use for exchanging
ebooks, scanned journal articles, proxy
passwords
• AvaxHome
– eBook pirate site
• Google Custom Search
Nietz Old Textbook Collection
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The Nietz Old Textbook Collection contains 19th century schoolbooks
of the United States. The demonstration project by the Digital
Research Library at the University of Pittsburgh offers the digital
editions of 30 schoolbooks from the collection. Users may examine
the digital editions and search a bibliography of the collection.
THANKS!
Bibliography
College Bookstores/Online Sites
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<http://degreedirectory.org/articles/10_Places_to_Buy_Digital_Textbooks_Online.html>.
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Make Textbooks Affordable. 10 October 2009. Web. 13 Oct 2009. <http://www.maketextbooksaffordable.org/textbooks.asp?id2=14226>.
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Bibliography
E-Books
Carlson, Scott. "How to Channel the Data Deluge in Academic Research." Chronicle of Higher Education: Information Technology 04 April 2008: Web. 12 Oct
2009.
Johnson, L., Levine, A., Smith, R., & Stone, S. (2010). (2009). The 2010 Horizon Report. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.
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Safley, Ellen. "Demand for E-books in an Academic Library." Journal of Library Administration. 45.3/4 (2006): 445-457. Print.
Future of the Book
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