Where do you buy your textbooks? Do you prefer to use them on reserve in the library? Do you even read your textbooks? And finally, will you buy textbooks on your iPhone this year?
Apple has introduced a new app called CourseSmart where you can purchase and use your textbooks on your iPhone or iPod touch. The benefits are that it’s portable and the content is searchable, but I personally have no interest in reading an entire textbook on a screen that small. I’m not sure on how the price compares to regular textbook purchases.
A better idea, in my opinion, is that of one of the largest textbook publishers in America, Cengage Learning, who is going to start renting textbooks to students at 40-70% of the sale price. Upon paying, you’ll be given access to the first chapter digitally and then sent the book for a rental term. When the term is up, you can send the book back or pay to keep it.
According to an article in the New York Times, textbook prices have increased by about 6% a year for the past 20 years – that’s about twice the inflation rate. This rental business sounds like a great idea for everyone, then! The only major problems, it seems, are the universities themselves. This particular rental program would have been offered at more colleges and universities if faculty members had been willing to commit to using the same textbooks for two years or more. At most schools they won’t, and so students are stuck with old fashioned, overpriced options.
How can we make this happen at Guelph??
NY Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/14/education/14textbook.html?_r=4&em
YouTube Video about iPhone App: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEUjy6fdKhA&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.booknetcanada.ca%2Findex.php%3Foption%3Dcom_wordpress%26Itemid%3D319&feature=player_embedded#t=84
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