By Lornna Bates
Staff Writer
Backpacks overloaded by textbooks may soon be a thing of the past. With the invention of eTextbooks, currently available for purchase or rental in the campus bookstore and various sites online, digital access to your textbooks is now a reality.
ETextbooks offer students and professors easy digital access through their personal computers of the identical material contained within the pages of physical course textbooks.
Jackie Codner, SE bookstore manager, has taken the opportunity to use an eTextbook before. “The program is easy to use, and I love that I can read right off my computer,” said Codner.
“The convenience of having a text on a laptop is a wonderful option for our students,” Codner added, “and the fact that they can save up to 50 percent off the new physical textbook price is just the silver lining.”
Dr. Aaron Adair, associate professor and director of theatre and the Chorvettes, agrees. Adair is participating in a trial by using iPads which have been issued to himself and his students. Although his students were unable to obtain the eTextbooks to use this semester, Adair has been using the electronic versions of the textbooks.
According to Adair, there are two main features of the eTextbooks that make them worth using. The first is physical: The books are easily portable. The second feature is the financial aspect, as eTextbooks are half the price of the traditional textbook.
There are currently around 360 titles in the bookstore available for purchase or rental, and these titles can also be accessed through the bookstore website. Availability of textbook titles will be dependent upon the individual professor’s choice of textbook each year.
According to the bookstore website, additional tools offer the ability to create and maintain notations of material, which can be saved and accessed along with the eTextbook. These tools also offer organizational and study tips to improve homework and test taking skills and the capability of highlighting passages within the text.
“What I most enjoy about the eTexts is that I can highlight, make notes and search the internet right from the eText program,” said Codner, who, in addition to having personally used an eTextbook, also uses ebooks for personal reading entertainment.
“Features like highlighting and notes are important to me,” said Adair. The software even has the ability to read sheet music and to allow a page to overlay the sheet of music on which notes can be added by the user, a feature that is much appreciated by Adair as the director of Theatre and the Chorvettes. The manipulated text can be saved to the sheet or erased at will.
Adair pointed out that the interaction available to the student is dependent on the publisher of the eTextbook and the software they have chosen for the text.
AmazonKindle, in Adair’s opinion, is the trendsetter of all of the software thus far, as they have proven to be listening to the consumer feedback and have made adjustments as problems arose, he said.
With the purchase or rental of an eTextbook, the user is given two access codes. As explained by the bookstore website, it is no additional cost to the purchaser to download and install the eReader application which provides the ability to navigate the textbook material.
“Most eTexts are available for 180 days, and can be downloaded to two computer devices,” said Codner. “Each eText is different, and we can explain the details here at the SE Bookstore.”
Any supplemental materials, tutorial cds for example, offered with the purchase of the physical textbook are also not available with the digital textbook version, according to the bookstore website.
There is also a copyright policy set forth by the publishers, called the Digital Rights Management, according to the bookstore website. The publishing company’s website is equipped with the copy and print restrictions and are readily available to any prospective buyers.
If the eTextbook is rented, consumers are offered the option to buy the eTextbook at the end of the 180 day period. If the option to buy is not accepted at the end of the agreement period, the license to utilize the product will simply expire, and the user will only have access to their individual notes made during use of the eBook. Complete details regarding the option to buy are available on the bookstore website.
A grace period is offered, however, where the material can be re-rented or bought. If you were to purchase the title, the book would then belong to the purchaser for the duration of the computer devices that the access codes were redeemed upon, according to the bookstore website.
The return policy for an eTextbook through the campus bookstore is very similar to an original textbook. According to the bookstore website, within the first week of class, if the access codes have not been redeemed, the material can be returned at full purchase or rental price to the bookstore.
For more information regarding the use, purchase or rental of an eTextbook through the campus bookstore, visit http://se.bncollege.com/eBooks/EBooksFAQ.html or contact the SE Bookstore staff.
Photo by Alisha Loyd