Imagine being able to carry all of your giant textbooks around in one small device. Though this might sound like a fantasy, it is a possibility for students who choose to use an e-book.
E-books are convenient, environmentally conscious, cost effective, and should be more readily available and promoted as a way to purchase textbooks.
Though recent years have seen an increase in e-book prices overall, theoretically the price need not include any costs for printing and is still lower than that of a physical textbook.
Renting an e-book textbook is also far more convenient than renting an actual textbook, because students don’t have to be concerned with the physical condition of their book while they have it.
Were e-book textbooks more widely used, the lines and chaos caused at bookstores at the beginning of the year could be reduced, as could the inconvenience of textbooks going missing or out of stock.
On a purely practical level, storing textbooks in e-books would save students some much needed space and allow for less of a load to carry during moves and long commutes.
E-books are also more environmentally conservative than physical textbooks because they take fewer resources to make and transport.
While e-book textbooks are available to students at several online sources the reality is that most students don’t know of, or consider, the possibility because it is not presented to them.
Professors could solve this problem by letting students know that the textbooks for their classes are available online.
