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Old 01-23-2012, 06:36 PM   #83
cHex
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Posts: 127
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Join Date: Sep 2011
Device: Kindle Keyboard (K3)
eTextbooks have the advantage that only the exact number need to be purchased as will be read. pTextbooks are not, in fact, always good for 5 years; they get lost, destroyed, defaced, and replaced with newer versions. Some texts are only needed every couple of years or so. Time and money must be spent in checking out, checking in, covering, storing, transporting, etc.

While it may be that pTextbooks are economical in spite of this, it won't be a straight 1:5 ratio (assuming a $75 pText is used 5 years vs. a $15 eText). (And of course, some textbooks get used more than 5 years. In highschool I was issued the same Spanish III text my dad's older brother had been issued.)

I'm guessing that the economies of eTexts are what will win school districts over--shipping costs, storage space, ease of upgrading, interactive elements, etc. I'm also guessing pTextbooks will never completely go away.

Interestingly, the places where I've actually seen eReaders being issued are in developing countries where often the faculty's own syllabi function as texts (no royalties or publisher fees): picture all those journal articles and book chapters converted into Kindle format. The $199 for a Kindle Fire starts looking like a bargain compared with the hundreds of dollars a semester's worth of books cost these days, especially if the students down own actual computers (example). Google "university kindle" and you can learn of the ups and downs of Kindles in the US and UK, indicating there is some demand out there.

Let us also remember that Amazon.com is now renting Kindle textbooks for less than the Kindle version purchase price; not great if you want to keep the book around for reference, but nice if you're the type that usually ends up selling your textbooks later--only to find that many are no longer desirable.
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