Electronic textbooks are cheaper for bookstores and students, but University of Minnesota Bookstore Director Bob Crabb said they have yet to catch on with students.
Electronic books have been offered for only a few semesters, but Crabb said he is surprised that their sales trail so far behind traditional books.
The bookstore sells about 500,000 books every year, and Crabb estimated that only 2 percent to 3 percent of these are electronic books.
“It’s a slow go,” Crabb said. “It’s catching on a little bit, but there’s still an awful lot of resistance from students.”
Crabb said students have cited eye strain and their familiarity with using regular books as problems with electronic textbooks.
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[Applied economics professor Donald] Liu said he would be interested in the [Macmillan DynamicBooks program but would want to poll his students before making such a decision.
Liu said that whenever he can, he opts for smaller, more concise versions of textbooks. With many students studying a given topic for only a single semester, he believes that an expensive and lengthy textbook is often not the best option.
“I think most instructors find that a very thick textbook containing many, many chapters is sort of a waste for students,” Liu said.
Like the digital books currently available through the University Bookstore, DynamicBooks will be considerably cheaper than printed textbooks.
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