Finding Books at Discount Prices: A professors Guide October 3, 2009
Posted by admin in : college advice, e-books, new books, textbooks, used books , 2commentsI have a pretty good relationship with many of my former professors, and sometimes I ask them to contribute their thoughts to some of the issues that students face.
Here is a blog post written by a former professor of mine, I hope that you find this useful.
Professor Colette Mazzucelli, Department of Political Science, Hofstra University and Center for Global Affairs, New York University
The more we teach, the more we learn about… discovering ways to save money for our students as book prices increase. Examples from my courses this semester are helpful illustrations. The comparative politics coursefor the Hofstra undergraduates, features three texts, which Norton sells as a package. The e-Book option is one the company’s sales representative helped me to identify as much less expensive for students. This package features efficient access to content on personal laptops in class as well as ease in note taking and markup right in the e-Book margins. Students who prefer to purchase the print copies of the different texts are encouraged to buy the much cheaper second editions even though new third editions just appeared in print. For those eager to compare, the new third editions are now placed on reserve as well in Hofstra’s Library. The Facebook reference to We Compare Books is available for undergraduates in my different class sections as they shop for cheap textbooks in various courses. Bookstores may prefer that students purchase individual textbooks, instead of packages, because these texts can be resold when the same classes are offered in subsequent years. In the immediate term, however, buying texts in packages or in bulk, as the next example illustrates, offers genuine savings for students. At New York University, my international relations syllabus for those graduates new to the M.S. Program in Global Affairs features extensive reading. This is a foundation course, which should also offer students ideas to develop research interests as the program of studies progresses to the thesis requirement. In this fall’s learning community, one of the members works for Pearson and offered to sell the others one of the required volumes for purchase at a discount price. Another option to keep costs low is to require texts for purchase that are available in paperback edition. In courses with such a wide selection of readings, the effective and efficient option in terms of savings and organization is to assign a minimum number of texts for purchase, let’s say five, all available in paperback. The rest of the readings are posted on the Blackboard learning system as PDF files for students to access from their home computers each week. The international relations syllabus also integrates progressively the wealth of public education materials available free of charge online, including multimedia resources and written transcripts. In these ways, the course retains breadth and depth in the readings, excessive trips to the Library Reserve Desk are unnecessary, and students do not spend as much for required course purchases. The future holds the promise of additional savings as many books are made available on the public commons by universities like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In this era of ever-rising tuition rates for higher education, every option to save counts during college years. Students should be able to afford the books for the courses they pay a substantial tuition to attend. This adds to the teacher’s responsibilities in course design to continue to identify savings options without sacrificing quality in higher education.
On theKindle II – Nostalgia from a 20’s something about the smell of books. March 6, 2009
Posted by Eugene Aronsky in : Interns, Kyle Schiller, We Compare Books, books in the news, business, colleges , add a commentA couple of weeks ago Amazon released its new e-book reader, the Kindle II. Reviews have been what I would describe as cautiously optimistic, with people applauding its features and capabilities but distancing themselves from commenting definitively on the still young e-book industry. I’m only 23 and a member of what people consider the tech-savvy generation, but even I haven’t been able to get into e-books. I have a free e-book reader application installed on my iPhone and I never use it. (On a side note, Amazon has a free Kindle application available for download on the iPhone and iPod Touch. This is either such a genius marketing scheme that I can’t hope to understand it or a really dumb move – basically forfeiting any revenue they had hoped to gain from iPhone owners who, I don’t need to add, are a large group.)
I don’t think I’ll ever be able to fully embrace e-books. Not being able to feel the paper pages on your fingertips? No more new book smell? No hearing the crisp cracking of the spine on its first open? Call me nostalgic, but how can that be satisfying? Jon Stewart, host of The Daily Show on Comedy Central, had Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on to talk about the Kindle II and addressed this feeling. “It just doesn’t feel like the kind of thing you want to fall asleep with on your chest,” he said. On the other hand, the idea of being a college student and not having to haul massive, fifteen pound books to class is quite appealing. It would at least cut back on chiropractor costs.
I’m not saying I’ll never own e-books, since I have what I hope to be a long life ahead of me with undoubtedly great technological leaps in store. But there’s something elemental, something intrinsically endearing about the book format that I don’t think will ever go away.
Here are some Kindle II reviews. Feel free to add your opinions to the comments section.
http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/26/amazon-kindle-2-review/
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2009/02/amazon-unveils.html
http://gizmodo.com/5159749/gizmodos-amazon-kindle-2-review-matrix
http://www.pcworld.com/article/139829/amazon_kindle_review_igniting_interest_in_ebooks.html
http://www.geek.com/articles/gadgets/review-kindle-2-2009034/
New feature: CourseSmart October 28, 2008
Posted by Olivier Hubert in : e-books, features , add a commentWe are proud to announce that as of early this week we have added CourseSmart as one of the sites that we are comparing in order to get you the lowest prices on books. CourseSmart is a leading provider of E-books, and allows users to purchase many popular textbooks in e-book format and download them instantly.
One of the benefits that the Web has brought, in regards to books, is the ease of propagation of E-books. E-books are, as the name suggests a virtual, digitized representation of a physical book. This format enables individuals to read the book on a PC or laptop, and often allows users to access the books online with a username and password.
These books are typically offered at a great discount because of the reduced costs of production. Additionally these books are safer for the environment as no printing or shipping is needed, and they can be distributed digitally.