An emerging alternative to the traditional college textbook may lighten students' backpacks and lessen the strain on their pocketbooks.
Most of the e-textbooks offered at SDSU come through CourseSmart, which was formed about a year ago.
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E-textbooks, read on the computer, are coming into their own as textbook prices continue to escalate for a college population that is more tech-savvy than ever.
Sales of e-textbooks make up a small but rapidly growing part of the $5.5 billion college textbook industry. Net sales of e-textbooks increased 28 percent – to $17.2 million – between 2006 and 2007, according to the Association of American Publishers.
A survey this year by the National Association of College Stores found that 18 percent of students bought or accessed digital textbooks available to them on campus.
Bookstores at schools such as San Diego State University and Cal State San Marcos began selling e-textbooks this year. UC San Diego, which already boasts one of the region's largest library e-book collections, is negotiating to sell as many titles as possible starting in January.
“We've been seeing this e-book thing coming for the last 15 to 20 years, and it's just now starting to take off,” said Mark Nelson, digital content strategist for the National Association of College Stores.
SDSU offered six e-book titles in the spring, expanded to 50 this summer and will make up to 200 available this fall.
Todd Summer, SDSU's director of campus stores, said e-textbooks cost about half the price of new books and two-thirds the price of used ones.
Textbook prices
by the numbers
What San Diego State University's bookstore charges for “Human Communication”:
$81.49: New textbook
$62.90: Used textbook
$44.49: E-textbook
$29.99: Rental textbook
NOTE: Only new and used books can be sold back to the bookstore.
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“It's the natural segue for textbooks to go,” said SDSU senior Natalia Benson. “I'm always on the computer and I'm always utilizing the Internet, and to have a one-stop shop where your textbook is on the computer is a fabulous marriage of multitasking.”
But many students still prefer to buy used books if they're available, Summer said, because they can resell them. People cannot access an e-book after their purchase period ends.
Other obstacles to wider use are e-textbooks that don't have enough interactive features and some professors' allegiance to printed books, said experts in the field of academic publishing.
Textbook publishers have noticed the growing demand for e-textbooks and are responding.
About 95 percent of current college textbooks sold by McGraw-Hill, one of the nation's largest publishers, are available in the electronic version, company spokeswoman Mary Skafidas said. Many of the e-textbooks have audio, video and search capabilities, she said.
“E-books are one more way McGraw-Hill . . . can provide lower-cost options to traditional textbooks for college students,” Skafidas said.
It's unclear how much profit publishers make on e-textbooks and how much they pay the authors of those titles. In general, many publishers pay the same royalties for sales of traditional and electronic books, said Bruce Hildebrand, executive director for higher education at the Association of American Publishers.
During the past two decades, college textbook prices have soared at twice the rate of inflation, according to a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
Undergraduates at four-year public universities spent an average of nearly $1,000 on textbooks and supplies during the 2007-08 academic year, according to the College Board.
Students have been looking for affordable alternatives, but industry experts said inventory in the digital market wasn't plentiful enough to catch on – perhaps until now.
“The digital textbook market today is what iTunes was four or five years ago. We're just now getting that critical mass of inventory where if you're taking an algebra, chemistry or accounting course, you can get a digital textbook,” said William Chesser, general manager for VitalSource, which provides software for selling digital textbooks.
“If you were a student 24 months ago about to start a class and were dying for a digital textbook, chances are you wouldn't have even known where to look for one,” he added.
Most of the e-textbooks offered at SDSU come through CourseSmart, which is backed by five of the nation's largest textbook publishers. Formed about a year ago, CourseSmart sells only digital textbooks and offers more than 4,000 titles.
At SDSU, students pay for an e-textbook at the campus bookstore. They receive a code and access the book online with a username and password. They can buy a subscription for 180, 360 or 540 days.
Students can search for keywords in an e-textbook and type notes in the margins, said Frank Lyman, executive vice president of marketing at CourseSmart.
They can print up to 10 pages at a time, in part to deter them from printing an entire book and distributing it to classmates.
The bookstore earns less money from the sale of e-textbooks than it does from sales of printed ones. But Summer, the director of campus stores at SDSU, said it's important to give students as many choices as possible and stay at the forefront of the textbook industry.
During the spring semester, 11 percent of SDSU students who had the option of choosing an e-textbook did so. Lyman said making more titles available may boost student interest.
“Before, there were never more than around 20 (digital books) in any college store, so let's see what the students at SDSU do with 200,” he said.
UCSD experimented in January 2007 by selling five e-textbook titles, and it netted lackluster sales. Campus bookstore director John Turk said those books weren't promoted enough.
With the industry now offering more titles, he's ready to make a bigger splash in January and see what happens. “The expectation from this bookstore now is to offer as many e-books as we possibly can,” Turk said.
Cal State San Marcos recently offered two digital textbooks and will make 25 titles available through its bookstore this fall with CourseSmart.
The University of San Diego is looking to expand its offerings, which have included less than a dozen titles through the Nebraska Book Company.
Some community colleges, including Southwestern and Grossmont, are selling a limited number of e-textbooks.
Not every student is ready to dive into the world of electronic textbooks.
Caitlin Amiton, a senior at Cal State San Marcos, has used two digital textbooks. One was easy to navigate, while the other often kicked her offline.
“I think having e-books as an alternative option is good, but as the only option for the required reading for a course, I don't think it makes sense yet,” she said. “Even though I don't take any more handwritten notes and my laptop goes with me to every class, it's harder to read and comprehend text online.”
E-textbooks also need to feature more interactive elements, said Nelson from the National Association of College Stores.
“If students are studying thermodynamics and they're looking at a pressure diagram, they don't want to see a static picture. They want to adjust the temperature and pressure and see what impact that has on the molecules,” he said.
“Probably within three to four years, consistently across all campuses, we'll see at least 20 percent of students adopting the digital book,” Nelson said.
Sherry Saavedra: (619) 542-4598; sherry.saavedra@uniontrib.com
