Penn State Hands Out Sony Readers

Penn State is trying an experiment. As the university notes on its Web site, it will begin a yearlong pilot program using the Sony Reader. (Sony donated 100 of them to the university libraries.) The readers will be used in the English department, will be available for borrowing in the Course Reserve Reading Room, and will be used in the libraries’ first-year seminar class for developing information literacy skills.

U. Of Michigan Library Gets a Book ATM

The Chronicle of Higher Education is reporting that The University of Michigan is going to install “The Espresso Book Machine.” This machine will allow users to print-on-demand just about any digitized, out-of-copyright book from Michigan’s collection (printing will take 5-7 minutes and the book will cost about ten bucks.) Users will also be able to print out-of-copyright books from other locations. The maker of the machine, On Demand Books, wants to make a network machines installed in libraries and bookstores around the world.

According to the article, however, this is the first machine installed in a university library, so there’s a way to go…

No, Virginia, Santa Claus Won’t Have a New Kindle

After watching rumors about a new, textbook-friendly Kindle coming out soon, Amazon has finally stepped in and — squashed the rumor. According to a blog at the New York Times, there will be no new Kindle this year. No news about the potential for a new Kindle next year. Read the comments for perspective from current Kindle owners and students thinking about what it would be like having a single e-book instead of a giant pile of books.

NCSU Teams Up With Wake Tech

This is kinda cool. North Carolina State University has teamed up with Wake Technical College. The announcement’s at http://news.ncsu.edu/news/2008/08/125mkwaketech.php .

The “Partnership for Access to College”, also known as PAC, offers students in Wake Tech’s College/University Transfer curriculum to get guaranteed admission to NCSU after completing an associates degree at Wake Tech and NCSU program requirements. Students must have completed a first semester at Wake Tech with a 3.0 GPA and a minimum of 12 credit hours at the 100 or 200 level.

Once in the PAC program, participants will be able to take one course per semester (fall and spring) at NCSU. They’ll also have access to an NCSU PAC ad visor, NCSU libraries, and other NCSU student services.

This really gives Wake Tech students who want to go on to four-year colleges a path to aim for. I wonder how much textbook overlap there will be between the two schools?

Hey, Used Textbooks Help With the Greenness!

You’re saving money and helping to save the environment! A note over at Plentymag.com mentions that the American book industry, in 2006, emitted 12.4 million tons of CO2. 63% of that carbon footprint came from paper. Buy your textbook used and you’re helping keep the air clean. The note also has the lowdown on getting recycled school supplies as well (rubber backpacks?)

Big Screen Kindle in the Works?

This is an interesting blog post about a big screen Kindle and what it might do for the textbook market. And when you think about it, prices on Kindles wouldn’t have to even drop that much for this to be a great idea. If you halved the price of textbooks when making them available electronically, the Kindle pays for itself in — what — a year?

Unfortunately there are a couple of big Kindle drawbacks. B&W only, for one. You also can’t mark it all over with a yellow highlighter and Post-It flags.

The Heck is Forbes Ranking Colleges For?

Well, they are. Forbes has released its inaugural top college rankings, sorting over 560 colleges. Going to the link above you can sort by ranking, state, etc. Ranked #1? Princeton. Ranked #569? Milwaukee School of Engineering.

George Bush Signs Into Law Higher Education Opportunity Act

George Bush on Thursday renewed the Higher Education Act, or Higher Education Opportunity Act as it’s referred to on THOMAS. I couldn’t get the text of the law at the GPO (I’m not sure it’s available yet) but I was able to get the text of the final version (enrolled bill) at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c110:6:./temp/~c110KbjY2h:: .

This law is eight million pages long. No, it just seems that way. Actually it’s over 1100 pages long. The part I’m looking at is Section 133, “Textbook Information”.

The law requires several things on behalf of a publisher and a college bookstore when it comes to textbooks. When publishers send out desk copies/ evaluation copies, they are also required to include:

1) The price at which the publisher would make the book available to the college bookstore and the price at which the book is available to the public. 2) The copyright date of the three previous additions (if applicable) 3) A description of the substantial content revisions made between the book and the previous edition 4) Whether the book is available in any other format, and if so how much it costs to bookstore and public.

Publishers are also required to make “bundled” college textbooks (textbooks that are sold with CDs or other supplemental material) available “unbundled”, with each item sold separately.

Colleges and universities receiving Federal financial assistance will also be required to disclose ISBN numbers and retail prices of books on their online course schedules. In the cases when that’s not possible (materials don’t have ISBNs) then additional information is required instead, including author/title/publisher/copyright date. Institutions’ written course schedules are required to note when such information is available online and where.

In addition, colleges and universities getting Federal funding are also required to make available to affiliated bookstores (that’s bookstores with which the institution has a relationship, not ALL bookstores) information about the institutions course schedule, and information about books required for each course. There’s some student information required as well (number of students enrolled in each course with a maximum student enrollment.) Institutions disclosing this information are encouraged (ENCOURAGED I guess does not mean required) to also provide students information on renting textbooks or purchasing used textbooks, available guaranteed textbook buyback programs, and alternative institutional content delivery programs if available.

If I’m reading this right, these requirements will go into effect July 1, 2010.