TeleRead-style national digital library systems wouldn’t be a boon just for local schools and libraries in the States and elsewhere. Consider the benefits for textbook publishers. Once again the topic of overgrown textbooks on paper has come to our attention–via a New York Times article, Heft of Students’ Backpacks Turns Into Textbook Battle. Imagine the hassles that publishers will suffer if many states follow California’s example and pass laws restricting the bulk of textbooks.
What publishers should be doing is to rely more on the delivery of their content by electrons and less by atoms. They should also try modular approaches, when possible, so that material can economically serve the needs of individual states, school districts and even specific children. In fact, some major publishers have already have been experimenting with customized electronic publishing for educational purposes, and TeleRead would encourage more of this by helping more schools and libraries go online in a truly major way, along with their users, of course. Time for publishing lobbyists to consider the possibilities of a well-integrated, systematic approach?
Yes, beyond the educational advantages, there are also hardcore business reasons from a publisher’s perspective. Think about all the cash-strapped school districts in the U.S. and other nations, for example, that could benefit from material being available nationally. Of course, many other countries already have more nationally oriented educational systems than we do here in the States. But via modular approaches–with many possible combinations of chapters and subchapters–TeleRead could fly even in nations that used highly local approaches. No longer would the rest of the U.S. be such a captive of California and other large states, which, due to their sizes, exercise too much influence over the textbook content for the nation as a whole. Material could be more tailored than ever for, say, Delaware or Maine. And that would increase the appeal of the e-publishers’ offerings.
Meanwhile, we’re pleased to note that some New York Times readers have already suggested computers as back-savers. At the same time, we also agree with the concerns of a software engineer worried about repetitive stress syndome and other ergonomic problems and another Times reader worried about the costs.
What to do? TeleRead could address the ergnomic problems by way of tablet style computers–with pop-up stands–that could gracefully double as book-style machines and desktop equivalents, complete with keyboards as needed. Remember, too, that e-books themselves will eventually be just like regular books, thanks to technologies such as electronic ink.
As for costs of the machines, they’ve tumbled dramatically and will go down still more, and even some schools without money for frills are experimenting with e-books.
What’s more, e-textbooks would be a far more cost-effective solution than repeated purchases of paper and and ink. And so would the national digital library concept, which could help reduce the need for procurement bureaucracies at the local level, given the inherent automation possibilities of e-commerce. Of course, ideally, many or most of the textbooks and modules could be online for free and paid for at the national level to reduce the proverbial savage inequalities discussed several years ago in Copyright and K-12: Who Pays in the Network Era? But even if this were not the case, the whole system could be made much more efficient than the present mess.
Note: TeleRead would encompass many different kinds of educational and library items, not just textbooks. If nothing else, remember that the number of books available in the home can greatly influence a child’s academic prospects.
