A new option is available to students who purchase their textbooks at the University Bookstore this semester.

In addition to offering new and used textbooks, the University is one of 10 colleges in the United States that is selling digital textbooks as part of a two to three week pilot program for Universal Digital Textbooks.

MBS Textbook Exchange Inc., the University’s textbook supplier, is using the 10 U.S. universities as test schools to determine the level of demand for digital books. After the results from the test are recorded, MBS plans to expand the sale of digital textbooks to every university they currently supply.

‘We anticipate digital textbooks to catch on,’ said Jeff Cohen, advertising and promotions manager of MBS. ‘It is just a matter of how long it will take. We have already begun to see sales around the country, so we know that students are interested in a less expensive, interactive learning product.’

Nineteen titles are currently available in digital form at the Bookstore at about two-thirds the price of new books, according to Bookstore Director Jeff Nelson. The books are sold as plastic cards, which are authorized when swiped at the Bookstore’s cash register.

Once a digital textbook has been authorized, it is up to the student to download the book to their computer’s hard drive from a Web site run by MBS. A student is only able to access their book from the computer to which they initially download it.

It is impossible for a student to return or sell their book back to the Bookstore after they have downloaded it to their computer, and most digital textbooks are available to students for five months.

According to Universal Digital Textbooks, a computer must be able to support Adobe Reader 6.0 or higher and have high-speed internet access in order to run a digital book.

Students with digital textbooks are able to highlight, mark pages, take notes, search for words, listen to an audio of the text and print selected sections. While students can generally print whatever sections of the text they want, they are not allowed to print the entire textbook at one time.

To some students, the new technology sounds like a helpful study tool, while others are turned off by the fact that their textbook would be plugged into a wall.

‘You can sit down and listen to it, versus sitting down and having to read it,’ said junior Kate Ricciardi. ‘You can multi-task, and that would be more convenient for students who are always on the go.’

But for sophomore Katie McMahon, always being on the go means studying in places other than her dorm room.

‘If I feel like studying outside, or in between classes at the library, a physical textbook is there for me to do that,’ McMahon said. ‘But a digital textbook is only on one computer, so it just doesn’t seem practical to me.’

While students are able to download their textbooks to laptop computers, sophomore Amy Utendorf commented that some students may not be willing to use their laptops in class.

‘A lot of times a textbook is really useful in class, and your textbook is going to be on your computer somewhere else,’ Utendorf said. ‘I can see how that could cause some problems.’

University Geology professor Joseph Frizado has used digital textbooks in his Geology 104 class, and says he didn’t require students to bring their textbooks to class.

‘When I used [digital textbooks] students didn’t need their textbooks in class,’ Frizado said. ‘It was expected that they had read the textbook chapter assigned for that class discussion.’

Frizado added that his teaching style was unchanged by the use of digital textbooks in his class.

‘Using [digital textbooks] didn’t alter my teaching at all,’ he said. ‘Students could purchase an original printed textbook or a used textbook or the digital version. The material was the same, and I couldn’t alter what I covered without creating an advantage for any one of the groups. The information was the same. Just the format for delivery was different with students choosing what suited them best.’

According to Frizado, the students who used digital textbooks in his class usually bought them because they were less expensive than regular textbooks.

Sophomore Tim Fiscus stated that the lower price of digital textbooks makes them a worthwhile purchase, despite the fact that they cannot be sold back to the Bookstore.

‘It sounds like a good idea, because when you sell your books back, you usually only get 10 bucks at the most anyway,’ Fiscus said.

According to Cohen, Fiscus is not alone in thinking digital textbooks are a good idea.

‘The demand for digital textbooks has increased since its introduction to the marketplace,’ Cohen said. ‘As students become more familiar with them and computers get faster, larger and more portable, this product will gain in popularity.’

While the digital books are expected to become far more widespread in the near future, MBS does not expect traditional textbooks to experience the same fate as stone tablets.

‘The traditional textbook will always have a place on the shelf just as it has for hundreds of years,’ Cohen said. ‘This product is about choice for students, providing them a less expensive price.’