From the University of Michigan Press blog: The University of Michigan Press announced today that it launched a new ebook rental program for more than 250 of its scholarly titles, allowing students or faculty to rent digital copies of the books at a discount for a month or six months. “The University of Michigan Press is committed to providing our titles in every format people would like to use, and to keeping readers’ costs down wherever possible,” said Karen Hill, Assistant Director and Digital Manager for the Press. “We expect that the lower rental prices will be a special help for students...

From the press release: CourseSmart, the nation’s largest digital course materials provider, today announced the launch of a new, custom-designed program for universities and colleges across the country, which provides faculty members with easy and convenient access to eTextbook formats of more than 90% of the most popular textbooks. CourseSmart’s Faculty Instant Access Program enables authorized faculty members the ability to gain immediate access to an ever-expanding library of digital content while connected to an institution’s Learning Management System or Campus Portal. CourseSmart developed the “Faculty Instant Access” program to allow seamless, single sign-on access for instructors, creating a significantly more...

From a press release I received: Traditional textbooks routinely cost $100 or more, adding significant cost to a student’s total educational expenses. To address the problem, faculty teams at Florida State College at Jacksonville have written 20 general education textbooks from the ground up. The CaféScribe platform will make it easy for any student at any school to purchase them. “Florida State College at Jacksonville is applying the latest research on teaching, learning and motivation in every phase of textbook and course development,” said Dr. Jack Chambers, chief operating officer for Florida State College at Jacksonville’s SIRIUS® course development project. “The CaféScribe...