EBooks: Lighter for your bookbag AND wallet
Jason Dorko
1.14.2006
EBooks!
EBooks are a very new concept but definitely something worth looking into for many students. EBooks are often exact copies of their paper counterparts so you never have to worry about not having all the text and diagrams as the guy sitting next to you with his heavy back breaking paper textbook. Their greatest benefit is their price! EBooks allow students to save money since publishers can offer the books without the cost of publishing. I myself was able to save about $135 on only two of my textbooks this semester. Add this over a college career and spending $200 more for that Tablet PC is no longer an issue! Of course with EBooks you are not going to be able to sell your books back and the ability to save money by buying used books is no longer available. Theoretically a used paper textbook that your either able to sell online or sell back to the bookstore may end up being cheaper but I can’t tell you how many times I can’t find a used book in the bookstore or when I go back to sell them they tell me there is a new version coming out. Of course I could buy and sell used textbooks online but this is sometimes a hassle and with the busy life of a college student I often don’t have the time.
For those with laptops (especially small ones you can take to and from class) and Tablet PCs, EBooks are especially useful. With an EBook you can carry multiple textbooks around with you wherever you go on campus in a much easier fashion. I like to go all out myself and brag to others about my Tablet PC and eBooks. I’ll see a poor guy with a heavy back pack on, with a notebook at his side and then watch pens and papers spill out as he sits down and tries to get ready for class. I’ll smile and easily pull out my Tablet PC (just about the only thing I have to carry) knowing that in my small 3.2lb ultra portable Tablet I have stored away 3 textbooks, a binder full of notes and diagrams for every class, a personal digital recorder, and every color pen and highlighter you can dream of. For those pursing “the paperless student” challenge eBooks offer one more step in that direction. For others though eBooks simply allow you to save a little green and I can’t think of any student that wouldn’t like that!
Safarix
This is a very big eTextbook store that is dedicated to delivering eBooks to students. It seems to be involved with several publishers so their selection is pretty big and it’s one of the first places I looked to see if an eBook version of my textbook exists. They offer only online viewing of textbooks along with subscription services. At least this is my experience with the company. The subscriptions last 150 days which gives you ample time to use the book during the semester, although with this subscription you will not own the book forever like you do when you buy the paper version. Depending on your usage though, the savings, ability to access the eBook from any computer (that has internet access) could be something of great benefit. SafriX offers a nice little walk though on their site so if your interesting I would check it out! I will be experimenting with SafariX this semester in my microbiology class.
Pearson Choices
This is a concept involving many books published my Pearson. Pearson is a very large publishing company which includes Addison Wesley, Allyn & Bacon, Benjamin Cummings, Longman, and Prentice Hall. Four core concepts make up the scheme of Pearson Choices. They are premium print and digital resources, alternate print additions, custom textbooks and custom media, and cost-saving digital WebBooks from SafariX. Pearson Choices is connected with Safarix which again has partnerships with many other publishing companies.
This is the company I bought my Microbiology book through (Brook: Biology of Microorganisms, Eleventh Edition). A brand new book from the book store would have cost me $135 and talking to just about everyone in the class (it’s a small class of maybe 18) the book store did not have any used ones so right off the start I saved myself $65 since the SafriX version was only $70. The one thing that bugs me about SafariX is that you pay for a subscription of only 150 days and can only access the book online. Therefore to access my book I am going to have to be connected to the internet and I am only going to be able to have the book for a limited amount of time. Our campus is basically wireless so having access to the book all the time won’t be that big of a deal and I can usually find internet access at most places I go but this does eliminate the ability to read the book in the car or at the doctor’s office. This would be a nice feature but how often do I actually ready the book at these places. If anything I suppose I would review my notes instead. The limited day subscription is also kind of annoying. Although I am not currently going into Microbiology (at least I don’t think so but anything is possible) having a limited day subscription eliminates the possibility of owning the book forever something I am just not that comfortable with. I guess if the book is good I like to keep it just in case as a reference but in reality I hardly ever up opening a book up again except for a few exceptions. It’s the first kind of format I will experience with this semester so hopefully I can post some opinions about my use of the book.
Pearson Choices
Mc Graw Hill Higher Education eBookstore powered by Primis
This is the second company I bought my textbook from. It was for my physiology class and we are using Fox: Human Physiology 9th edition. Mc Graw Hill was of particular interest to be since I knew they allowed custom publishing for eBooks but this was the first time I would actually be able to take advantage of the regular eBook store since getting a professor to ask for an eBook version via the custom publishing department was not going to happen at my school. My eBook came in to versions, I could buy an adobe version that would be downloaded to my hard drive which then supposedly records the serial number of my hard drive so I can’t transfer it to any other computers. I would not have to be connected to the internet and I would have the book for the life of the computer. I also could have opted for a Zinio reader format. In this format you had to be connected to internet but would be able to access the book from any computer. They say you have a limited number of page views but it should be enough for all you reading and studying. This means I guess it would be kind of like a subscription depending on many times it was read. I suppose this is to prevent a group from buying the book and then having everyone be able to sign on to read it at different times but I am not quite sure of this limitation. I decided I liked the adobe version since I wanted to try a version that would be downloaded to my computer hard drive. Also physiology is one of my favorite areas in biology so I knew I would have kept this book if I had bought the paper version. A new version of the book cost $138.70 and I have not seen any used copies but I am sure you could have bought a used one online for about $100 or so. Although I really dislike used books myself since I write and draw all over my book and hate it when someone has highlighted things that I would have not but for most people a used book is fine. The eBook version was still less though at $68.06. So figuring I would have had to buy a new one anyways I saved myself $70.64 by going the eBook route on this textbook.
Wiley Desktop Solutions: powered by VitalSource
I was allowed to be part of a trial group for Wiley last winter in my Organic Chemistry class. (Solomons & Fryhle: Organic Chemistry Eighth Edition) Unfortunately I did not have a Tablet PC at that time but I did take advantage of the eBook (I think I was the only one in the class that did). I wish I would have saved my complete review of the process but from what I can remember it still had some work to be done at the time. They seemed to have moved to a new format called Wiley Desktop Solutions and created a partnership with VitalSource. When I was trialing the eBook you could only access the book using your online Wiley account. Since then it seems the company has made great efforts in the eBook market and shifted gears that now allow you to download the book instead using the VitalSource software. Wiley has listed many books it plans to include in what seems like next fall (2006 maybe?). However if one of your books is listed I suggest contacting your Wiley representative to see if you can give the book a test drive. They may even allow you to use it for free if you are willing to report back to them at the end of the semester on you overall experience with the eBook. I am not sure what other publishing companies are associated with VitalSource but I really like the new format. What I like most about Vital Source is that your books are downloaded onto your computer and you do not need to be online to access them. There is also no expiration date so once you buy the book you own it. Also the ability to print pages and make annotations is available. I downloaded a free trial of textbook of Biochemistry (Devlin, Thomas M.. Demo - Textbook of Biochemistry with Clinical Correlations, 5th Edition. John Wiley & Sons, 2001.). They allow you to look at the first 3 chapters. Hopefully I’ll have some time to work with it and can report my feelings and compare it to other eBooks.
Wiley eBooks
Books available soon
Can’t Find Your Book
If you can’t find an eBook version of your textbook there are still a couple things I would recommend. First go to the publisher’s page and search for eBooks to see maybe if it is in a section of the webpage that is sometimes hard to find. You can also Google your textbook and add “eBook” to the search to see what comes up. Also many textbooks today have companion sites. Make your way to these sites and look to see what digital resources are available there. For example my biology book (Campbell, Reece – Biology, 6th edition, Benjamin Cummings, 2002) has a link where you can buy access to the companion site with the option of also buying access to the eBook. I had bought the textbook itself and included with it was a key with access to the companion site and eBook but you also have the option of just buying the online access and eBook for $42.00, which is much cheaper than what I paid for the hard cover version. However I remember that you had to be connected to the internet to access the eBook, you could not print it, and had no way to make your own notes. I used this book my freshmen year of college so things may have changed since then but my point is if you really want an eBook version of your textbook, don’t me discouraged right away. EBooks are still a fairly new concept so finding them right now is still a bit difficult but a lot of the time options do exist.
Overall
I know there are other places that offer eBooks and I originally planned into looking into more companies but the semester has started and thus I have more important things to work on than looking for eBooks that I don’t even need but I suggest you look into it if you are interested as many options exist. Also with many different companies you are going to have many different options when it comes to eBooks. Options included with an eBook purchase can include things like the ability to highlight, add notes, make bookmarks, direct links to key concepts in other parts of the book and searching. However, not all eBooks have all these options so I suggest if you find an eBook for one of your classes go to the site and try a demo of their product. Using the demo will allow a hands on experience to see what it will be like to work with the eBook itself and then you can decide if it is right for you. EBooks can save you money and also lighten up your book bag. However with these luxuries there are limitations so I do warn students about eBooks still.
This semester I will be experimenting with two eBooks that I mentioned above with my Tablet PC. On my new blog I can post my interactions and experience with the books as the semester progresses. At the end I hope to be able to write a nice summary of my overall experience but like always we’ll wait and see how much time I have but check back often as I experiment with these new versions of textbooks!