From a BML Bowker Announcement: While the majority of the U.K.’s undergraduate students are now using e-books, none are yet relying on them as a primary source of information. Print continues its hold as a key resource for at least two-thirds of students. That’s one of the key findings of a major new study that explores student information sources in the digital world from the book research experts at BML, a Bowker business. The study was conducted in December 2011 and shows significant change since 2003 when BML conducted similar research. [Clip] Indeed, the study plots a variety of changes and pace at...

A couple of interesting posts on the closure of pirate etextbook/academic/arcane book site library.nu.  The first is by Alan Toner, and intellectual property and communications researcher, on his blog knOw Future Inc.: On a final note, the case of library.nu is significant because the demand for the works offered there demonstrates that filesharing is not just about pop music, porn and cams of action movies, but also those forms and sources of knowledge whose acquisition are ritually celebrated within ‘enlightenment’ culture. Many of those whose works were offered derive income not from royalties, but from related activities such as teaching and research....

That's the title of a most interesting article in ReadWriteWeb.  Written by someone in the trenches.  Here's an excerpt: If you were to visit the library on the campus where I teach, you would see students waiting to use outdated desktops in the computer labs and library, particularly around midterms and finals week. It seems odd at first, considering the school has a laptop requirement for all undergraduates. That means you have to have a laptop computer when you enroll, and presumably, as an instructor, I can require my students to bring them to any class. But here's the reality: laptops break,...

From an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education: If you have recently published with an academic press, or if your book is in press now, you might have been disappointed to learn that your work won’t be available on your e-reader anytime soon. While novelists take for granted that their new books will appear in all the electronic formats simultaneously with print publication, for scholars there are no such assurances. Why? The answers fall into three main areas: (1) technology, (2) rights, and (3) money. Technology While novels typically consist of straight prose that is relatively easy to pour into the proprietary formats required by...

From Campus Technology: Beginning this fall as many as 5,000 students taking an introductory psychology course at the University of Cincinnati (UC) will be able to access their textbook online for free. Students will also be able to purchase a suite of electronic versions of the text, compatible with tablets, e-readers, netbooks, and smartphones, for $35, a black-and-white print version for $35, or a $70 color print version. "Under this pilot project, we can now be certain that course content materials are available to the students, because price is no longer a factor," UC Associate Professor of Psychology Charles Ginn said. "Due to rapidly...

Hundreds and hundreds of visitors have read LibraryCity‘sproposal for the sale of OverDrive to public libraries or a related nonprofit. The idea drew favorable reaction fromThad McIlroy, a prominent publishing consultant, and it even made an ALA newsletterand Reddit. Still not convinced of the possibilities? Well, consider that 39 percent of U.S. public libraries don’t offer downloadable e-books. Check it out for yourself. Ironic, isn’t it? Rockford, Illinois, is ODing on e-books, while many U.S. communities are so cash-strapped or e-backwards that they lack any. Or maybe not quite so backwards. Remember, with OverDrive as a middleman, many public librarians might not feel quite as comfortable with e-books as they would...

From Inside Higher Ed: Cost-conscious students can of course save money with used or online books and recoup some of their cash come buyback time. Still, it’s a steep price for most 18-year-olds. But soon, introductory physics texts will have a new competitor, developed at Rice University. A free online physics book, peer-reviewed and designed to compete with major publishers’ offerings, will debut next month through the non-profit publisher OpenStax College. Using Rice’s Connexions platform, OpenStax will offer free course materials for five common introductory classes. The textbooks are open to classes anywhere and organizers ...

That's the title of an article in KQED Mind/Shift.  It contains a lot of information and links. Here's a snippet: Apple’s announcement last week about its new iBooks2 and authoring app created big waves in education circles. But smart educators don’t necessarily need Apple’s slick devices and software to create their own books. How educators think of content curation in the classroom is enough to change their reliance on print textbooks. As the open education movement continues to grow and become an even more rich trove of resources, teachers can use the content to make their own...

From the University of Rochester's Campus Times: … The UR bookstore boasts a new e-reader station where students can explore versions of Barnes and Nobles’ own e-reader, the Nook.  Furthermore, the station highlights new, free software available online that allows students to easily access material from e-Textbook purchases. e-Textbooks have been available at the bookstore since 2004 and students can rent or purchase them at prices similar to those of standard textbooks.  They can also be purchased online at the University bookstore website. Nevertheless, there are many practical problems surrounding the use of e-Textbooks on...

The editorial is titled, “College students will stick to paper books” and was published by Washington Square News today. From the Editorial: The benefits of these e-Textbooks include the ability to quickly search through large amounts of text, insert marginalia in electronic comment boxes and access hyperlinks. Yet the tactile quality of textbooks, something e-Books will never have, allows readers a certain intimacy with their academic material. It’s a lot easier to curl up in bed with a textbook than it is to go to bed with a hunk of heated metal by your side. It is evident from the limited success of...

That's a point I never thought about.  Storage space on iPads is limited, and the price of the iPad goes up a lot as you get units with more memory.  Chris Maxcer makes this point in an article in MaNewsWorld: E.O. Wilson's Life on Earth, however, is free -- at least, a preview and a sample chapter is free. Good enough for me. I downloaded all 965 MB of it, and this is only for a partial e-book. One of the other e-books, Pearson's Biology, boasts a print length of 1,791 pages and a digital size of 2.77...

From the press release: McGraw-Hill today announced the launch of Harrison's for the iPad, the digital edition of the world's most influential medical textbook, Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, created exclusively for the world's most sought after tablet computer, the Apple iPad. Harrison's for the iPad was developed in partnership with Inkling, creators of the pre-eminent interactive content platform for the iPad. It leverages the mobility, rich media, and processing power of the iPad to enliven its content, improve speed of reference, and expand the learning experience for clinicians and medical students alike. The iPad's state-of-the-art platform and...