Electronic textbooks may not be the cheap and light replacements to heavy and expensive ones you were hoping for
Student book bags are due to get a lot lighter as those beefy textbooks get the shove into the 21st century.
The electronic reader – or e-reader – has already proven people are willing to make the jump to digital when it comes to the paperback novel.
Manufactures, such as Amazon and Apple, are now investing in the idea that textbooks will benefit from the same treatment.
Reading and studying on a computer screen for extended periods of time has never been a replacement for the traditional paper model book until recently. With technology advances such as electronic ink and tablet computers, the concept that paper books could be replaced is gaining ground. Strain on the eyes during reading is now more relaxed due to less intrusive screens and smaller handheld computers make reading much less awkward than on a laptop or desktop computer.
But what does the digital shift mean for students?
One e-reader or tablet computer has the capability to carry an entire library of material. That means only one device needs to be carried instead of multiple textbooks for each class. Most of these devices weigh less than two pounds, making the workload physically lighter. The ability to buy textbooks over the internet also is a plus as it makes a trip to the bookstore obsolete.
One would also think digital copies of textbooks would run cheaper as well. Digital textbooks don’t need materials to be made. No paper, no ink and no distributing cost means students who spend hundreds of dollars on textbooks a semester should catch a break.
But textbooks are late to the digital game and we have the benefit of looking at how prices were impacted in other mediums. Movies and music have both been offered over the internet for years now and the price of a CD or feature movie hasn’t changed much despite the lack of a physical medium.
E-books have run cheaper in the past but the largest e-book retailer, Amazon, is under investigation for price fixing. They are accused of keeping their prices low and then jacking them up later when there isn’t the option to buy elsewhere.
Apple opened its online textbook store this month, selling 350,000 textbooks in three days, but the prices remained on par with what is on the shelf. In some cases they were more expensive. Apple takes a 30 per cent cut from every item sold on its website and publishers say many of their interactive features, which you can’t get in a normal textbook, cost more to make.
Then there is the issue of ownership. From a legal standpoint when you buy a movie or a CD you do not own the film or the song, you are only paying for the privilege of playing it. The same goes for textbooks. But in order to combat downloading piracy, something that electronic textbooks are vulnerable too as well, publishers have made strict, borderline illegal rules on their content called Digital Rights Management (DMR). DMR means your license to read your textbook can expire and when your semester is over, the textbook can be deleted from your computer automatically. You’ll be paying to rent your book, something which is already happening on campuses across North America. Some textbooks that you want to keep longer can adopt a subscription model, meaning that in order to keep the material you’ll have to pay a monthly or yearly fee.
Digital textbooks will also bring the end of the secondhand sale. At the end of the term you will not be able to sell your book and recoup some of what you spent on it. Downloading a textbook marries that digital copy to the device or profile you bought it on. Unless you’re willing to part with your e-reader or iPad altogether you’re stuck with the books you bought. Or not, depending how the publishers feel.
