Alternative solutions to rising costs of academic textbooks through e-books

Alternative Solutions to the Rising Costs of Books

The concept books comes into an existence because of the needs to store information and pass the same information to the next generation. Books have been used for several centuries dated back to the time of bronze age. However, books have passed through revolutionary changes starting from when people write on clay to the time when books have been converted into an electronic format. Earlier books were meant to keep observations and records. Several years afterwards, books have found their places in academics, literatures, politics, and poetry. Over the years, books have witnessed changes of being imprinted from clay to paper. However, rapid development of information technology has transformed books from paper to paperless format and delivered to users in an electronic form generally referred as e-books. E-books refers to the transfer of books into an electronic format where readers are able to access the books' contents through electronic devices such as computer system, iPad, Cellular or Tablets. Typically, e-books have become immensely popular among casual readers and students and many journals and articles are currently being published using the electronic format.

Effective reading of quality books has been the primary factors that can enhance students' academic success. Amount of reading is consistence related to a growth in vocabulary, verbal fluency and growth in reading comprehension. More importantly, success of students in the university has been linked to availability of quality and affordable books. Quality books enhance students' analytical and critical thinking skills, which enhance students' efficiency in a workplace. Despite the importance of books for an academic success, many students often complain about the increase in the prices of traditional print books. Typically, students complain that prices of books keep increasing making many students facing challenges in having access to quality books for their academic purposes. (Hermida, 2009, Knobelsdorff,2012). However, bookstore managers of various universities maintain that books are sold at breakeven prices.

Increase in prices of printed books has made large number of students to consider believe that electronic books (e-books) can serve as an alternative to printed books. Within the last eight years, the demand for e-books has risen significantly. Factors that lead to an increase in the demand for e-books include low cost of producing e-books, and rapid technological development. Moreover, introduction of e-readers devices such as Amazon Kindle, and Sony Reader has made increasing number of students to shift to web-based and electronic books as an alternative to printed books in order to overcome constant increase of prices of the traditional printed books.

Objective of this paper is to carry out the research to find the best alternative to printed books. The paper compares printed books with web-based books using different criteria that include price of the books, shipping costs, book buyback program, availability and students' opinions about books' purchased. The paper also investigates whether e-books can assist students receive quality academic contents similar to print books.

Background

Rapid transition from print books to electronic books in the last few years has made electronic books to become a major topic of discussion among management of public and school libraries in Bermuda and across the United States. Typically, over two third of public libraries in the United States provide access to electronic books. Since 1970s, e-books have become a major topic of discussion within public libraries across the country. The origin of e-books was traced to Gutenberg who launched a digitalized cultural work in 1970s that encouraged the dissemination and creating of e-books. However, there was no mass market of e-books during this period, readers could only view the Gutenberg's project through desktop computer. Moreover, the project could only be accessed with a limited remote host-database. The introduction of e-readers such as Amazon Kindle introduced in 2007, and Barnes & Noble's in 2009 and Kobo make increasing number of users to gradually turn to e-books as an alternative to traditional print books. Moreover, increase in the cost of print books and rapid development of information technology has made the demand of e-books to increase rapidly.(Besen, & Kirby, 2012).

The study intends to find an alternative to the traditional print books because many students complain about rising costs of traditional books. Typically, the issues need to be investigated because rising costs of books can make increasing number of students to drop out of the institutions leading to the decline in students' population. Moreover, the increase in the costs of books can discourage people from attending colleges, which will consequently lead to decline in the total population of students in country. More importantly, a decline in students' population can lead to a decline in the country's GNP per capita. An investigation carried out by the World Bank (2000) on the relationship between level of country's educational enrollments and GNP per capita shows the countries with higher college enrollments record higher GNP per capita than countries with lower college enrollments. The findings of World Bank investigation reveals that there is a positive correlation between the level of college enrollments and a country economic development. Typically, all low income countries record low college enrollments, while virtually all high income countries record high college enrollments. Thus, it is very critical to find solution to the increase in the price of books in order not to reduce college enrollments in the country, which can affect the country's economic development .

Research Problem

The rising costs of books are the problems that this study attempts to address. Many students are complaining about the rising costs of books making them facing challenges to buy required books for their academic purpose. Although, rising costs of books have been the major problems globally, nevertheless, there is still no effective policy implementation that can address the problems. Moreover, there are scanty of literatures that provide a comprehensive solution to the problems. This study attempts to fill the gap by providing comprehensive solutions to the problems. The solutions will assist students and colleges authorities to overcome the problems that students face with regards to the rising costs of books.

Methods of Investigation

The study uses the document analysis and case study as the methods of investigation. Document analysis is the qualitative research method used to collect and evaluate document . Although, qualitative research has been used for many years as a way of investigating an inquiry, however, in recent years, there have been an increase in the use of document analysis to derive solutions to a problem. "Document analysis is a systematic procedure for evaluating or reviewing document -- both electronic (internet-transmitted and computer-based) materials." (Glenn, 2009 p 27). Similar to other analytical and research methods in qualitative research, document analysis examines and interprets data in order to gain a greater understanding, elicit meaning as well as developing empirical knowledge from different documents. The "documents can be analyzed as a way to verify findings or corroborate evidence from other sources" (Bowen 2009 p 30).

Document contain words, text, and images which other researchers have recorded. Documents also include books, e-books, journals, articles, manual, background papers, event programs, newspapers, press releases, survey data, and various public records. Photo albums and scrap books can also be used to carry out research purposes. In essence, documents collected are subject to analytical procedures to synthesizing, appraising, and selecting in order to collect relevant facts. Document analysis delivers data that include quotations, excerpts and entire passages organized in major categories, themes and case examples. (Glenn, 2009).

By using the document analysis for method of inquiry, the study has been able to collect vast amount of data related to the research paper and able to analyze various documents in order to have access to the contents relevant to the research topic. Major benefits of document analysis is cost saving. Typically, the researcher is able to have access to large volume of data with lesser time. Unlike survey and interview method that take much time to complete, document analysis provides effective and efficient way to collect data.

The study uses different electronic database to access different documents. In the contemporary educational environment, electronic database has become a method that can be used to access to a large volume of data. The study collects data from electronic databases that include Science Direct, Emerald Insight, and EBSCOhost. These databases contain millions of academic books, e-books, journals, articles and dissertations that the researcher finds valuable for the document analysis.

This study uses the document analysis in combination with case study in order to carry out a triangulation. The essence of qualitative research is to use different methods and multiple data source to seek convergence. In essence, the triangulation assists the researcher to enhance a credibility of research findings. By examining and evaluating data collected using different methods, the researcher is able to collaborate findings from different data sets. More importantly, document analysis is used in combination of a case study to produce rich descriptions of organizations and program in order to deliver the importance of e-books for the academic purpose. Meanwhile, the study collects data from non-technical literatures in combination with case studies to develop understanding, uncover meaning as well as discovering insights to the research problems.

The document analysis also delivers a supplementary research data for this study. The data collected from the document provides additional insight for knowledge base. The research process is also carried out by sourcing for data from library archives and catalogues. Using this process, the study has been able to collaborate evidence from other sources. One of the benefits of document analysis is that it is less time consuming, which make it more efficient than other research method. Availability is another important benefit of document analysis since many documents are available through open domains, which does not require seeking authors' permission. The easy access of document analysis also makes the research method to be more attractive in a qualitative research method. Moreover, document analysis is more cost effective because a researcher will incur lesser costs to collect large volume of data since the data have already been collected, and analyzed by other researchers. What remains is to evaluate the quality and contents of the document.

Despite the benefits that this study stands to derive using document analysis as a method of data collection, the use of document analysis alone may not be sufficient to achieve the research objectives and solve the research problems. For example, data collected through document analysis may not be detailed enough to solve research problems. More importantly, relying on document analysis may lead to a bias. For example, if a researcher collects data about an organization, the document collected can be aligned to the organizational corporate procedures and policies, which may not provide objectivity.

Despite the limitations derived from the document analysis, the benefits that this study derives from using the research procedure outweighs its shortcomings. The study uses the case study to supplement the documental analysis as a means of triangulation, which assists in enhancing reliability and validity of the research findings.

Case studies

This case study describes unique challenges that students of Dickinson College face with reference to the rising costs of books and the strategy the college has employed in solving the problem. Dickinson College is an higher institution in the United States that offers four-year program in liberal arts. The institution can boast of approximately 2,500 undergraduate students. With increase in the students' population, the College faced challenges in expanding its library space because of lack of available land. Moreover, the college was faced with problem of limited budget.

By consequence, the college has shortage of books in the library, which could not circulate the entire student. The shortage of books in the library made students to rely on books purchased from the bookshops to complete their academic studies. However, a recession between 2008 and 2009 had led to the rising costs of books which has become a major concern to both student and college authorities. To solve the problem of constant increase in the costs of books, the management of Social Science Library implemented a program by launching the e-books for the students in 2011. The goal of the program is to address the problem of incessant high costs of books that students are facing.

To implement a large scale e-book program, the college carried out a pilot program about the benefits that students would drive from the program. The pilot program was to identify some of the important factors that users stand to gain from the e-books. The librarian selected seven distinct titles for the pilot study where four tiles were selected for e-books and three titles were selected for print books. The pilot program attempted to discover if electronic books could be used to substitute print books in order to overcome the problems students were facing with rising costs of books. The program was also use to compare the benefits the students would derive from using the e-books compared to the traditional books.

Dickinson College also used the survey method to sample students' perception with regards to e-books and traditional print book . The survey was administered electronically using email method and students were allowed to present their feedback regarding to the costs of e-books vs. print books and user experience related to e-books and traditional print books.

The first survey was carried out to determine the students' experience towards the use of e-books and the survey is presented as follows:

Survey 1: User experience towards print vs. electronic books

1)Have you ever an e-book before?

Yes

No

2)If yes, where do you locate the e-book?

Library catalog

Library database.

Google or Google scholar

Other internet search. .

eReader device such as Nook, Kindle or iPad.

(3) Which book format do you prefer print or electronic books for class?

(4) What do you dislike from using ebooks?

Book costs.

Restrictions on users.

Ability to download text.

Reading online. .

Long-term preservation.

5) Do you like purchasing required books yourself? .

Yes.

No.

6) Choose the book format that you believe cheaper for the same book title- print or electronic books?

7) Choose the book format that is more costly for the same book title- print or electronic books?

8) What do you like from using the ebooks? .

Accessibility anywhere.

East of use.

Ease of cppying / printing.

24/7 accessibility.

East of reading.

Ease of searching the text. .

No particular appeal.

The second survey is used to compare the costs of traditional print books with e-books.

Survey 1: Costs of print vs. electronic books

1. In your opinion, which book format do you believe more costly ?

E-book

Print

2. If you select e-books, state the reason that make the e-books more costly than print books

Price of the books

Shipping costs

3.If you want to buy a book in the future, which book format will you prefer?

E-book

Print

4. Suggest a method the College can employ to overcome the rising costs of books

Launch an e-book program

Allow students to subscribe to the academic database

Instruct students to continue using print book.

5. Do you believe that you can save more money using e-books?

Yes

No

6. Estimate cost percentage you believe you can save from shifting from print book to e-books?

10%

20%

30%

40%

50% or more

The outcome of the survey conducted reveals that large number of students are being affected by the rising costs of print books. Moreover, larger percentages of students believe that e-books can serve as an alternative to print books. The college overcomes the problem of rising costs of print book by subscribing to EBSCOhost database. The database contains million of ebooks, articles, journals, dissertations, magazines and newspapers. The database allows students to read and download large amount of ebooks they will need to complete their academic purpose. Using this strategy, the college has been able to overcome the rising costs of books that the students face.

Scope

The scope of the study is to compare the print books with e-books. The study carries out the comparison using different criteria such as student opinions, availability, costs, book buyback program and shipping costs. The scope of the investigation covers international level because almost all students globally are being affected by the rising costs of print books. The findings assist colleges and universities across the world to use the outcome of this research to design effective solutions to the rising costs of books, which can affect a country academic program.

Discussion of Findings

The study carries out research to find solution to the costs of print books. The study findings are derived from the document analysis and case study. The findings reveal that the cost of print books are higher than the costs of e-books. Major factor attributed to the increase in the costs of print books is that publishers are to incur the overhead that include salaries, office space, utilities and other overhead that lead to rise in the costs of books. Moreover, the costs of printing and distribution are the other costs that publishers incur and all these costs are passed to final readers. However, the costs of e-books are lower than the costs of print books because publishers do not incur cost of printing e-books. Moreover, e-books are stored in electronic format making the costs of producing e-books to be significantly lower than print books.

The findings also reveals that publishers incur some overhead costs of producing e-books. For example, a single book will require five editors that include grammar editor, content editor, line editor, final editor and character editor . Moreover, a graphic designers is to be paid because a graphic designer is necessary to attract readers to books. Despite the overhead incur on e-books, the costs of producing e-books are significantly lower than the costs of producing print books.

Apart from the costs of e-books that are significantly lower than the costs of print, portability is the other benefit of e-books. Students can store thousands of e-books, journals, and articles on a single device. Moreover, many electronic libraries are now available, which allow students to download large number of books in their devices at lower costs. Some electronic libraries can allow students to download as many books as possible upon paying monthly or yearly subscription. More importantly, shipping costs that are being eliminated is the other benefits of e-books over printing books. Typically, e-books do not require shipping costs because of its instant delivery. A student who buys a book online is required to pay as additional shipping costs apart from the price of the books, and it can take up to a week or more before the book is finally received.

The results of the case study also reveals that many students prefer using the e-books to print books. The primary reason that make students to prefer e-books is their low costs compared to traditional print books. Students also identify convenience and availability as the other reasons making them to prefer e-books to print books. More importantly, students can access materials of e-books 24/7. The colleges has been able to overcome the high costs of print books by allowing students to access Ebscohost electronic database.

Conclusions and Recommendations

The study investigates alternative approach that can be used to overcome the rising costs of print books. The study collects data using the document analysis and case study and the findings reveal that e-books are the effective methods that students can employ to overcome the rising costs of print books. The study recommends that colleges and universities should subscribe to Ebscohost electronic database to overcome the rising costs of print books. The colleges and universities should ask students to pay for the costs of books at the beginning of the academic year. The costs will cover the entire books that students will use for the entire year. In exchange, students should be given the usernames and passwords that they will use to access the Ebscohost database. This strategy will serve as an alternative to the rising costs of print books that students face across the world.