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For more than 800 years professors have been writing textbooks and students have been complaining about them. Since the emergence of printing in the middle of the fifteenth century, textbooks have been expensive but necessary commodities in the spread of knowledge. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries a revolution in textbooks has come about, thanks in part to computers, and in part to the Internet. Several issues are affected by digital media. First, some claim that there is a diminishing need for textbooks since the information they impart can now be found on the Web — free and efficiently. After all, digital texts are instantly available from anywhere in the world, they are searchable, and they are free. Second, print-based-textbook prices have skyrocketed in the last dozen years or so. But with multiple used copies locatable on the Web, publishers are seeing a diminution in sales of new copies. Third, this has led publishers to urge authors to produce second and later editions of popular textbooks — volumes that may have no intellectual benefit over the earlier editions. Fourth, college and university curricula have seen a proliferation of specialized courses which require tailor-made texts. Digital media make it possible to produce these quickly and cheaply (though the cost savings are not always passed on to the students). Many other practical and ethical issues exist in this complex area of the publishing world.

Stream: Educational Resources and Learning

Paper: Has the Pedagogy of Textbooks Taken a Back Seat to Economics?

Sidney Berger's Doctorate is in Medieval Literature and Bibliography, and he has a Master's in Library and Information Science. He is Professor of English and Communications at Simmons College. Longer Bio As a Professor of English, Bibliography, Communications, and Journalism for over thirty years, Professor Berger has required hundreds of textbooks. His amazement at the range in their quality, their challenge from the Internet, and their skyrocketing prices has prompted the present study. Dr Berger has taught many book-arts-related courses, including the History of the Book; Enumerative, Analytical, Historical, Descriptive, and Textual Bibliography; Medieval Codicology (The Medieval Book from Sheep to Shelf); Printing on a Handpress; Book Collecting; Rare Book Librarianship; Book Appraisal; and many others. He has lectured and published widely on many bibliographical topics, among which are library security, access to the Internet in public institutions, paper decoration, forgery, bibliographical instruction, bibliographical description, book collecting, bookselling, paper making and paper history, library operations, and publishing. He has been Curator of Printed Books and then Curator of Manuscripts at the American Antiquarian Society; Head of Special Collections at the University of California, Riverside; and Head of the California Center for the Book, a statewide literacy and reading program for children and adults. He is presently Professor of Communications and English at Simmons College in Boston.