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eBooks and eTextbooks in Colleges and Universities
June 17, 2009: "The six colleges and universities involved in the Kindle DX pilots have yet to announce the full details of the pilot but some information has been provided. Here is a round-up of what we know so far:.."
April 2009: "From May 2009 to September 2014, students at UK further education colleges will have free online access to 3,000 course texts as a result of the e-books for FE project, funded by the Learning and Skills Council and JISC..."
April 8, 2009: "As frequently noted on many other blogs, there is currently a boycott of Kindle eBooks which cost over the much vaunted Amazon price of $9.99. The idea, like most boycotts, is to inspire publishers to drop their prices either to or below the $9.99 price point. Amazon, which is just one of many paid-content eBook distributors, and their under ten dollar price actually represents one of the cheapest means of getting an eBook today..."
June 12, 2009: "Northwest Missouri State University nearly became the first public university to deliver all of its textbooks electronically. Last year the institution's tech-happy president, Dean L. Hubbard, bought a Kindle, Amazon's e-book reading device, and liked it so much that he wanted to give every incoming student one. The university already runs an unusual textbook-rental program that buys thousands of printed books for students who pay a flat, per-credit fee. Mr. Hubbard saw in the gadget a way to drastically cut the rental program's annual $800,000 price tag, since e-books generally cost half the price of printed textbooks.
Then the university ran a pilot study with the Sony Reader, a device much like the Kindle (Sony was more responsive to the university's calls than Amazon was). University officials learned some sobering lessons about electronic books. Students who got the machines quickly asked for their printed books back because it was so awkward to navigate inside the e-books (though a newer version of the device works more gracefully)..."
June 2, 2009: "Google will begin selling ebooks this year, the Mountain View, Calif. company confirmed Monday. Industry watchers believe the decision strengthens Google's position to compete better with Amazon as well as its play in banner advertising, although it's too early to tell whether paid search campaigns will become part of this move. Google had announced a partnership with Sony in March that made 500,000 public domain book titles available to U.S. consumers for free. The out-of-copyright books were published in 1923 or earlier. The agreement made available more than 600,000 titles from its eBook Store, which overshadowed announcements for the closed-format titles that consumers can only read on Amazon's Kindle..."
June 1, 2009: "Prime View International, a Taiwanese company that makes an e-readers display part, said today it would purchase E-Ink, a company that provides the digital ink technology in the Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader, for $215 million. The two companies have been partners in developing the Sony and Amazon e-reader products, and the deal highlights PVI’s attempt to own the top provider of an essential technology for the growing e-reader market..."
Report: Rivals can exploit Kindle shortcomings
June 1, 2009: "Companies are likely to challenge the Amazon Kindle by unveiling cheaper, more versatile e-readers, moving beyond books, and striking better deals with publishers, according to a report released Monday by Forrester Research..." Includes a great forecasting chart on business growth and adoption rates.
Flat World Knowledge to bring free textbooks into Blackboard
February 4, 2009: "Flat World Knowledge, a free, open source textbook publisher, has announced plans to add support for direct integration of its books into campus learning management systems (LMS) like Blackboard and ANGEL. .."
Digital textbooks turn page on paper; colleges, students in Berks use the technology
May 17, 2009: "You're probably thinking of a hardcover or softcover book with a few hundred pages. But in a growing number of college classrooms in the United States, including some in Berks County, you'd be wrong..." Also include price comparisons between new print / used print / CouseSmart / FlatWorld versions.
U.K. study reveals that bundling print and digital drives textbook sales
April 24, 2009 :: "John Smith & Son, an academic and professional book-selling chain in the United Kingdom, released results of an e-textbook study it conducted. According to the retailer, the study showed that when e-textbooks and print textbooks were bundled together, sales grew 25 percent. The study also showed that when textbooks were available digitally, used textbook sales of their printed counterparts decreased by as much as 68 percent in a year-to-year comparison..."
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Patricia Presti
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