etextbooks presentation Limerick, Ireland

1. Are ETextbooks Cost Effective?
Rachel Wexelbaum
Plamen Miltenoff
Saint Cloud State University, Minnesota,
United States of America
4th Quantitative and Qualitative Methods in
Libraries International Conference, May 2012

2. What Is An ETextbook?

3. Digital Textbook Initiatives
• Gerry McKiernan’s Digital Textbook Blog
http://digital-textbooks.blogspot.com/
National Initiatives (for open textbooks):
South Korea and Poland…others?
Commercial Initiatives (for commercially published):
iBooks, CourseSmart…others?

4. Saint Cloud
State University
St. Cloud, MN

5. Online/Open Education at SCSU
594 instructors use D2L (Desire2Learn) Course
Management System (CMS) for online
instruction
• ~20% of faculty use their own wiki for online
instruction
• ~15% of faculty use Facebook for online
instruction
• ~5% of faculty use a combination of all three

6. Print Textbooks for Online Classes
“Libraries exist to promote student success”
Print textbooks expensive—students seek out the library
for copies to borrow
Bookstore does not promote ETextbooks
Faculty do not promote ETextbooks

7. Our Study
Are academic libraries in other English speaking
countries purchasing textbooks?
Are academic libraries in other English speaking
countries purchasing ETextbooks?

8. Our Findings
Most academic libraries not investing heavily in print
textbooks or Etextbooks
(10% or less of their budget)
Textbook collection is >75% print
Most academic libraries plan to invest more in ETextbooks
Librarians from countries other than the US more likely to consult
faculty, students or administrators to make ETextbook selection and
purchasing decisions

9. Print-EBook Preference
Are students and faculty really embracing
commercially published ETextbooks?
What are the challenges that students and
faculty face in embracing commercially
published ETextbooks?

10. Challenges of ETextbook Acquisition
Why are academic libraries not investing
heavily in ETextbooks?
Switching from print textbooks to
ETextbooks costs schools three times as
much!

11. Further Areas of Exploration
What role should academic libraries play
in providing access to ETextbooks?
What role should academic libraries play
in the development of and access to
ETextbooks?