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

What Is An ETextbook?

Digital Textbook Initiatives

• Gerry McKiernan’s Digital Textbook Bloghttp://digital-textbooks.blogspot.com/

National Initiatives (for open textbooks):South Korea and Poland…others?

Commercial Initiatives (for commercially published):iBooks, CourseSmart…others?

Saint Cloud State UniversitySt. Cloud, MN

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

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

Our Study

Are academic libraries in other English speaking countries purchasing textbooks?

Are academic libraries in other English speaking countries purchasing ETextbooks?

Our FindingsMost 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

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?

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!

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?