In higher education, we all know that the cost of text books is significant. These days at American Public University, we estimate that on average, course materials will run between $125 and $175 per course. With a typical bachelor’s degree requiring 120 credits, that’s about 40 courses or about $5,000 to $7,000! The University realized early on that this can be quite a burden, so the school provides a Book Grant to degree-seeking undergrads which picks up most course material costs. Other students, including those in graduate programs can take advantage of purchasing books from discounters such as Chegg.com and Amazon.com, and can also purchases used books and sell their books back to various vendors when they complete courses.

However, there is innovation in the textbook industry, and it is coming mostly from outside the publishers.

There is a rumor that Apple will be hosting an event related to the publishing industry (possible textbooks) in New York in January 2012. Could it center around electronic editions of textbooks? Could it be new software for the iPad that makes etextbooks more like printed books? Could it be a sub-$100 text book ereader? Could it be related to iTunesU and making more texts available for purchase?

There’s certainly a lot of speculation, and you can read more about it here.

[Visit American Public University's iTunesU Site]

Only time will tell. One thing is for sure, with the heavy market adoption of ereaders and tablets, the migration of textbooks from the print to electronic will be sooner than we think. The impact will most certainly be greater than we imagined on the economy, industry, how we use and interact with texts and how we use tablets for our studies.

Sure, you’re reading a lot for classes, but after you’ve set aside classwork are you done with reading? Newspapers count in terms of staying current, and top of matters of your state, technology, and new developments, but what about reading from a book?

[Check Out eBooks Instantly From the Library]

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If you have an e-reader you know the advantages of them. Besides being easier to flip pages, you can also download new books within seconds while going about your daily errands. If it’s been a while since you’ve been out to your local public library, but you want to take advantage of the “free” books you can borrow, try downloading a few.

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Kindle 3 by Amazon (courtesy Mashable and Amazon)

Is it pouring outside? Is there a foot of snow on the ground? Did the local branch shutter because of the economy? Do you live too far from the nearest library? Does your library not have the book you want?

These are just a few of the questions that come to mind when I think of the disadvantages of the traditional library system. While I have written about how libraries have been making a slow but steady shift from stacks to servers over the past 15 years, one of the most promising advances I have come across recently is the idea of loaning ebooks.

Within one week I came across two articles, one by Mashable regarding Amazon’s ebook lending program and another by my high school (the article is not yet on their web site, so I will look to update this post with a link once it is available).  Both articles illustrate the advancements in library accessibility that are coming of age thanks to the evolution of the internet and ebooks. This may bring new opportunities to rural communities and classrooms further democratizing literature.  Only time, imagination and bandwidth will tell.