Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
UK Research Information Network (RIN, 2009) has noted that book
purchasing over the past decade has dropped, per FTE student, from
£32 to £30 per year.
As student tuition fees increase around the world, the ability or desire
on the part of students to buy expensive textbooks diminishes. Business
models for textbooks are under as much scrutiny, and experiencing as
much change, as the commercial and academic monograph sectors. The
State Public Interest Research Groups (SPIRG) in the USA have
argued, in
Ripoff 101: how the publishing industry's practices needlessly drive
up textbook costs
(SPIRG, 2005), that textbooks are hugely overpriced.
With many textbooks in the USA costing over $200, there is
considerable resistance to e-book purchase by anyone other than
libraries (Eunson, 2009).
The publishing of textbooks has been dominated by a relatively small
number of educational publishers. Debus (2008) has provided a
historical overview of the educational textbook scene in Australia,
highlighting a 'golden era' from the mid 1970s to the mid 1980s. By
2008, however, as detailed in the Australian Society of Authors (ASA)
document
Educational Publishing in Australia
(ASA, 2008), publishers
had 'drastically reduced terms and conditions offered to authors . . .
commercial educational publishing in Australia, for Australia, by
Australians no longer works' (Debus, 2008). The ASA report highlights
some of the same issues from the SPIRG findings, in that publishers
produce expensive add-ons to textbooks, publish editions that differ
little from earlier ones, except for adding 'digital ancillaries . . . like the
free prawn crackers given away with many Asian take-aways . . . to
sweeten the deal'. Debus concludes: 'the business model for educational
textbook publishing is broken'.
Given that textbooks are not generally accepted as research output
by research assessment bodies, then apart from the relatively few
academic authors who still receive substantial royalty payments, the
case for an online institutional textbook framework in terms of digital
'mix and match' seems increasingly likely. As the price of
college/university textbooks continues to rise, new models, including
rental of texts and various open options, will also be explored. Online
access is imperative in a 24/7 environment, including library provision
to online course pack readings. Links from these to campus learning
management systems are essential.
