By Emily E. Smith
Oregon Daily Emerald, U. Oregon
(UWire)--Amazon's newest version of its electronic reading device, the Kindle DX, is expected to hit the market [Summer of 2009] with a larger screen suited to newspapers, magazines and the next frontier: textbooks.
Whether students or textbook publishers will find the slim, handheld screen with a spacious electronic page attractive is topic for speculation, but some Kindle textbooks are already available to buy. After purchase, Amazon wirelessly delivers the textbook copy to the device.
Major media have reported the new Kindle's rumored release from anonymous sources, following Kindle's second iteration that came out less than three months ago.
Amazon markets its wireless reading device as sleek, reader-friendly and designed for long periods of reading with no computer required, offering maximum portability.
While the wireless device could change the textbook-publishing market by eliminating production and distribution costs for publishers and eventually eliminating the bookstore, Kindle is not a pioneer in electronic literature.
The Duck Store began selling online electronic texts during the 2005-06 school year.
E-book sales are increasing, but the product still isn't very popular...This might be because of today's college students' attachment to the hard copy.
- Gina Eckrich
Gina Eckrich, textbook buyer at the Duck Store, said e-book sales are increasing, but the product still isn't very popular. She speculates this might be because of today's college students' attachment to the hard copy.
"A lot of college kids grew up primarily getting information through books," she said.
If that's how students are used to learning, a screen might not seem like the optimum format for engaging with text, she said. Adjusting readers' eyes to the electronic format might also take time, she added.
The grayscale digital screen doesn't appeal to Eckrich, who said she already spends too much time reading on a computer screen.
"Quite frankly, it's really hard for me to read," she said.
For 10 years, Eckrich said, book sellers have been contemplating the move toward digital products, but the lengthy transition from concept to reality eases her worries about the effects e-books might have on the industry.
"This is coming," she said. "More and more people want this, but it's going to be a slow process."
The e-books available from the Duck Store are online texts that students can read on their computers. The advantages: They are cheaper than new print books and as portable as a laptop. The disadvantages: Students can't sell or keep them because they disappear when the e-book subscription ends, typically after a year.Making the switch to electronic reading might not delight the eyes, but it could help the environment.
Associate professor of environmental studies and geography Peter Walker sees some immediate positive effects for the environment in the new technology."Obviously, moving away from big, heavy, tree-consuming books that have to be trucked around burning fossil fuels toward electronic textbooks that require none of these resources (apart from electricity for servers, etc.) is great," he wrote in an e-mail.
However, Walker supports lower textbook prices for students and has found ways around costly and environmentally unfriendly print textbooks for years.
"A lot of professors like me have been doing electronic online readings without physical textbooks exclusively for quite a few years because it's free and uses no resources," he wrote.
Walker said the open textbook movement, in which authors make textbooks available at no cost for an online audience, has helped make this possible. While he sees some benefits to Kindle use becoming more widespread, he's leery of Amazon as the facilitator.
"I'm not necessarily happy to see Amazon moving into this market, because there is already a very active open textbook movement that seeks to make electronic textbooks available for free," he wrote. "If, by charging money, Amazon Kindle co-opts or slows down the movement toward free and open online texts and readings, then Amazon could actually interfere with the movement away from physical textbooks."
Eckrich pointed out that while Kindle's convenience may be a selling point, it might be cost-prohibitive for some students. Kindle 2 sells for $359 plus the cost of each textbook purchased, [the larger Kindle DX sells for $489 plus the cost of each textbook purchased.] As with the Duck Store's e-books, Kindle books cannot be sold after use, which Eckrich said contributes to the net cost.
As for the future of the Duck Store, Eckrich said if Kindle is the way of the future, the business will find a way to survive.
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