Much to her frustration, Kening Tan '12 has already spent approximately $300 on textbooks this semester, even after buying certain books online at a reduced cost. Her irritation may also be felt by students on College Hill, where the start of the new term means the reluctant emptying of pockets at the bookstore.
But if Brown were to adopt the same electronic textbook initiative cropping up at schools across the United States, students like Tan may save a few bucks on textbooks.
Northwest Missouri State University and the University System of Ohio have begun e-textbook programs, where the textbooks for a course are available in digital form. Electronic textbooks cost "about 50 percent less than hard copy texts," saving students countless dollars every semester, President Dean Hubbard of NMSU wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.
Since the fall of 2007, Northwest Missouri has been actively pursuing a campus that uses only e-textbooks, Hubbard said. The school has even tried to adopt e-book readers so students can upload and read their e-textbooks, instead of lugging around print editions, said Paul Klute, assistant to the president at NMSU. The school allows students to purchase or rent e-textbooks, and the majority of students choose the latter option and pay a small hourly fee for use of the book, Klute said.
NMSU tested the Sony Reader with their students last semester but found "the model we used was a little outdated," Klute said. Currently, the school provides laptops to students for a marginal fee, so they can read their e-textbooks.
The Brown Bookstore, meanwhile, tried adopting the new e-textbook technology, only to find disappointing results. "We did it last semester only to have about five sales," said Edward Weiss, textbook manager. "Most of our titles aren't in e-book form anyway," he said, adding that the majority of books for Brown classes come from university presses, which are not switching to e-textbooks as rapidly as larger publishers. Publishers McGraw-Hill and Cengage have partnered with NMSU and CourseSmart, a company that provides the electronic versions of the textbooks from six major publishers in the United States.
The university system of Ohio has an exclusive partnership with CourseSmart to offer electronic textbooks to its students. Unlike NMSU, Ohio will not be switching entirely to e-textbooks. "We want to provide the option of electronic textbooks," said Michael Chaney, chief communications officer of the Ohio Board of Regents, adding that he did not want to "force the change."
"Some students like having a book they can mark up or resell," Chaney said.
Textbook offerings are limited by the ability of CourseSmart to acquire more electronic titles from additional publishers. Senior Lecturer in East Asian Studies Lung-Hua Hu said she prefers "the old-fashioned textbook" for her classes. But she said if the professor doesn't use the textbook in class, it's better to use an e-textbook as opposed to the print edition.
Students still seem to want the option of e-textbooks. "Brown is so green," Tan said, adding that e-textbooks seem more environmentally friendly. She also said she thinks e-textbooks would save students time and money.
But Tan also said she understood the shortcomings of an all e-textbook campus, noting that "even if people use e-textbooks, they may still print out the pages."
