Digital Textbooks Create New Opportunities and New Problems

"Paying for college isn't cheap by any means, but a new push toward digitizing textbooks could help lower some out-of-pocket costs. Schools, booksellers and even the federal government are working on ways to drive the cost of textbooks down by replacing traditional tomes with electronic editions, Wired reports ... The Learning Opportunities With Creation of Open Source Textbooks Act could make it easier for colleges to use open textbooks, which are free to use and open to modification by any educator who uses them. Colleges aren't waiting for Congress to act before they take advantage of open textbooks, however. Schools such as Purdue University, the University of Minnesota and Oregon State University have partnered to build the Open Textbook Library, an online resource for free class materials. The State University of New York libraries launched its own program, called Open SUNY, to create and distribute free textbooks to students.  Private companies are also taking advantage of the landscape of high-priced textbooks to offer cheaper alternatives to college bookstores. Although they sell traditional textbooks in digital form - as opposed to the open formats some schools are championing - many businesses are undercutting more established sellers, NPR reports. For example, one company called Packback offers rentals of electronic books for $5 per day rather than requiring students to pay the full price for a book they may open only a few times per semester ..."