‘Wired’ students reading p-books: Some issues surrounding university e-book adoption

As a member of a university community, I’m always interested in what publishing industry people have to say about e-books in academia. A couple weeks ago, there was a post linking to a speech by Mike Shatzkin, which discussed the topic. He suggests that the natural grouping of interests present in a university setting has caused “college and professional publishing [to live] in the new digital world far more than trade or consumer publishing.” He also mentions that Abebooks.com found 49% of 5,000 students polled “‘were not prepared’ to use digital texts at all”, but is unclear “whether the students or the professors are the main barriers to switching over to electronic media.” He also wonders why e-books haven’t caught on.

While I can’t speak for every university, I work in a computer lab, am the go-to person in my department for webpages, have coordinated multiple digitization projects, and have a pretty decent sense for how people are interacting with technology at the present moment. This is my attempt, as an “insider”, to address some of the interesting points he has raised.

“Wired” students

Mr. Shatzkin says that college students are “wired”– definitely true, at least compared to the population in general. You can’t walk across the quads without spotting at least five people with the ubiquitous white iPod earbuds. The university has a wireless signal available from anywhere on campus. At the same time, though, I’d guess a significant minority of students carry their laptops with them everywhere, and I know no one with a PDA. Students very rarely use laptops in class; the only time I’ve seen multiple students doing it was in one very boring biology lecture class. Clearly, students aren’t carrying everything with them, and I would interpret this to mean that the need generally isn’t there.

At the same time, there are computer labs and/or e-mail checking stations scattered all throughout campus, and students have grown accustomed to things being available on-line. This has primarily been focused around Blackboard, where professors can post the syllabus, course readings, multimedia files, and the like. The library also has an “electronic reserve” where students can download pdf’s of course readings.

Groupings of interests

Universities are grouped into divisions (humanities, social sciences, physical sciences, etc.), which are then grouped into departments (history, English, international studies, etc.) These departments have equivalents at other universities. So, in the same way that Star Trek fans have gathered together on-line to share fan fiction, Mr. Shatzkin seems to suggest that scholars are gathering together on-line to share their research. The world scholars live in “has driven the change” to digital publishing, right?

It does seem to be happening… but more gradually than you’d think. Sites like JSTOR and SpringerLink provide articles from scholarly journals in pdf form. It’s a great distribution method and storage method– better than going to the library and photocopying what you need, then putting the photocopy somewhere safe. But people usually print them out to read, and then feel free to be somewhat careless with the printed copy. Note also that this is something that publishers are doing, not groups of scholars.

So what’s up with the scholars? My guess is this: “publish or perish” does not yet count digital publications. The younger, more tech-savvy scholars would rather save their ideas for a medium that will “count”, and once they publish a paper in a journal, they’re disinclined to make it available for free on-line, due to copyright issues. Older professors either a) like adding journal publications to their CV and/or b) don’t know how/don’t care to make their work available on-line. Copyright restrictions on published articles and the fear of plagerism seem to be major issues standing in the way of forming an on-line community with free and easy exchange of information.

Students or professors?

Mr. Shatzkin asks, who’s to blame for the lack of e-book adoption in the university– professors who don’t understand the technology, or students who are wary of it? I would answer, neither. While not all older professors are comfortable enough with technology to make course materials digitally available themselves, I’ve never seen one turn down a TA’s or student’s offer to do it for them, if the tech-savvy person sees it worth their time. The University of Chicago sees plenty of applicants seeking grant money to modernize a curriculum, digitize materials, or develop on-line learning tools. Personally, I would say that the fault lies in the marketing of e-book technology, format issues, and the lack of a trusted company to provide necessary infrastructure.

Case study: podcasts vs. e-books

Take, for instance, podcasts. You’ve got students walking around everywhere with their iPods, so why not provide them with something course-related to listen to? This idea clearly has advantages that aren’t addressed by any other available technology. People start working on ways to record and distribute the podcasts, which results in many small, individualized projects– but at least they have mp3 as a recognized standard format. Along comes Apple, offering to provide all the distribution infrastructure through “iTunes U“, and while it’s a step away from mp3’s, iPod is the leading mp3 player, universities probably have dealings with Apple already, so they sign the deal. Before long, podcasts start becoming more commonplace.

Now what about e-books? I’ve brought up the issue before, and the first thing I hear is, “How is this better than a pdf?” When I mention the annotation capabilities of a program like Thout OR, they ask, “How is this better than a wiki?” The advantages of e-books are not as obvious as those of a podcast in the context of currently popular technology, and they have not been sufficiently emphasized. People are also concerned about the “Tower of e-Babel” and the threat of their books becoming obsolete and unreadable within a few years. Which common format– if any– would a university choose? And which company could inspire enough confidence to become the provider of the infrastructure? Yes, students like saving money, and the potential is there with e-books, but it’s not enough to outweigh all the other issues at hand– including those surrounding professors’ own publications. Until these issues can be addressed, and the unique advantages of e-books can be made sufficiently attractive for users to switch from the current model, I see e-books having a hard time gaining a foothold in the university.

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Quinn Anya Carey is a BA/MA student in Slavic Linguistics at the University of Chicago. She is also the daughter of OSoft president Mark Carey. The opinions expressed here are hers alone and do not represent any position taken by the university.