@ The Library

Textbook Print vs Electronic Textbooks: "As long as students have some version of the book"

The University of Louisiana sparked some outrage this week for pricing an online textbook for $999 while the print copy was $250.  That led to a good article summing up faculty thoughts on the price of textbooks and electronic vs. print textbooks: 

Andrew Robinson, a physics instructor at Carleton University, in Canada, said while he prefers paper copies of texts, he simply specifies the textbook and lets his students decide on the format. “Intro Physics textbooks are $200-350, so affordability is important,” he wrote in a direct message on Twitter. (That’s about $155 to $270 in U.S. dollars at current exchange rates.)

Numerous professors who responded to an inquiry on Twitter said they encourage students to get the cheapest option they can — e-book, rental, library book, photocopy, borrowed book, or older edition — as long as students have some version of the book.

Read: Hard Copy or Electronic Textbooks? Professors Are More Concerned About Keeping Them Affordable