Ebooks at Liberal Arts Colleges

"Australia, India, the U.K. and the U.S. lead the world in e-book adoption rates, according to Bowker Market Research's Global eBook Monitor, released on March 27. In each of those countries, more than 20 percent of respondents report purchasing e-books in the six months before the survey, and about a third of respondents in the U.K. and U.S. say they have plans to purchase an e-book soon."

"Readers of e-books like to read in all formats, they favor print books for sharing and to read to children, and on average they read more books over all than print-only readers do."

"The case for why tablets are ready for the college classroom is pretty simple: they're a great way for students to consume media-rich digital content (the best way out there, in my opinion), they mesh well with students' lifestyles thanks to their small profile and long battery life, and tablets offer access to the world of apps, which includes some of the most innovative educational software around. Like in most other markets, the iPad has so far been the tablet of choice on college campuses. But with today's launch of the Kindle Fire, Apple may have its first viable competitor."

"Textbooks are a thing of the past, says the common wisdom. Well, the common wisdom of the Technorati maybe. The problem with that thinking is that the number one publisher in the world is Pearson, a textbook publisher, who brought in $7.75 billion in 2009. Pearson, as Tim Carmody noted in a January Wired article, owns 50 percent of the Financial Times, as well as the number two trade house: Penguin. The second largest textbook publisher, McGraw-Hill, owns Standard and Poor's. To say textbooks are big business is like saying bullets are ouchie."

"Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishers Inc has reached a deal with more than 70 percent of its creditors to cut $3.1 billion in debt as it faces a lagging textbook market due to drops in educational funding. The publisher said it plans to restructure through a pre-packaged, court-supervised Chapter 11 bankruptcy."

"The Learning Class"

"Daytona State, a 35,000-student institution and a former community college, has been moving toward a "100 percent" eBook campus since 2009, using electronic texts in English, computer science, and economics courses, said Rand Spiwak, Daytona's chief financial officer and executive vice president."

Profile of leader of IU Etexts initiative

". CSU has announced a three-year deal with Nature Publishing Group for low-cost, interactive, web-based textbooks with access options for disabled students. "

"Freed-Hardeman University has launched an experimental iPad pilot program that will allow a handful of preselected instructors and their students to experience the iPad in the classroom environment and beyond. Students began using the iPads last week as part of a summer general chemistry class."

"Despite their fondness for social networking and cell phones, most college students say they prefer textbooks in printed rather than e-text form. Nearly 75% of students to recently respond to a major new research survey from the Book Industry Study Group (BISG) said they prefer printed texts, citing a fondness for print's look and feel, as well as its permanence and ability to be resold."

"Despite the widely publicized rising sticker prices on tuition, about two-thirds of the increase in the cost of attending a four-year college from 2000 to 2009 came from nontuition sources, such as books and off-campus room and board, according to a report released on Thursday by the Center for College Affordability and Productivity."

Argues for its timeliness. Accessibility might be the biggest .edu win.

"The CIT has been monitoring trends in e-textbooks and, in recent months, has explored new options for the traditional classroom texts with Duke instructors."

"U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Federal Communications Chairman Julius Genachowski were on hand to unveil the new "Digital Textbook Playbook," a resource designed by the Digital Textbook Collaborative to help guide educators in their transition to electronic resources, as the pair headlined a national online town hall meeting for the inaugural Digital Learning Day."

"Internet2, a consortium of 221 colleges and universities, which last year brokered landmark deals with Box.com and Hewlett-Packard that gave its members discounts on cloud computing services, announced today that it had entered into a contract with McGraw-Hill, a major textbook publisher, aimed at creating similar discounts for students on digital course materials."

Interesting model: they seem to add functions on top of textbook. (thanks to Todd Bryant)

"This past fall fully 90 percent percent of the CIOs who participated in the annual Campus Computing Survey agreed that "eBook content will be an important source for instructional resources in five years," up from 76 percent in fall 2009. Campus IT leaders were also bullish, if slightly less so, on the rising role of eReaders as a "platform for instructional content" (82 percent agreed in fall 2011, compared to 66 percent in 2009)."

"This is an open proposal to the CUNY community. Take action to drastically reduce the cost of textbooks and create a CUNY-wide eBook program. "

"The mass market paperback is dead. It just doesn't know it yet. Ailing for months, its demise is now all but assured by Amazon's recent bold announcement. Not the over-analyzed, over-iPad-compared Kindle Fire announcement. Rather, by the far less interesting news - to the gadgetphiles - that the least expensive, wonderfully readable and portable Kindle is now $79, a price point matched over the Black Friday holiday by Barnes & Noble for its Nook Simple Touch Limited Edition."