Roundup: More College Press Coverage About eBooks and eTextbooks
Two more articles discussing student use of ebooks and etextbooks.
1. University of Kansas: The Rise of the E-book (via University Daily Kansan)
Many students can’t give up loyalty to the printed book. Lottie Likens, the manager of University Book Shop, says customers have told her that buying e-books makes them feel like they are spending money on nothing. It’s like paying a decent amount of money for a non-tangible object. “You can’t beat having the book in your possession,” Likens says.
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Alyson Lippert, a senior from Stilwell, usually reads one book every week. She prefers printed books, although she has a Kindle application on her iPad that allows her to download and read e-books. “Reading books on my iPad is convenient when I travel and when I go to class, but I like to have an actual book in my hand,” she says. Lippert has her books displayed on a bookshelf so she can go back and look at her accomplishments.
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2. University of Rochester: E-book popularity rising, UR students not following trend (via Campus Times)
…there are many practical problems surrounding the use of e-Textbooks on campus. UR Bookstore manager Maria Ferrante noted that, despite the widespread availability of e-Textbooks, the digital forms of many textbooks are much less popular than the hardcover versions. In practice, students who purchase e-Textbooks generally only do so when the bookstore has run out of hard copies and the student is desperate for the material.
“I don’t use e-Textbooks because I like to highlight and annotate in my textbooks — it helps me understand the material better,” junior Cindy Zu said.
Prices can also be a deterrent.
Read the Complete Article
See Also: New York University’s Student Newspaper Publishes Editorial About e-Textbooks (January 30, 2011)
Filed under: Publishing, Roundup
About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.