Reading Today, For Tomorrow

Information technology has brought about transformation almost every part of modern society. IT's true power is simple; it empowers everyone to share ideas by facilitating the development, research, recording, sharing and spreading of ideas. This is producing a society that is increasingly expanding knowledge at an exponential rate. According to research if you are studying a 4 year technical program, by your third year half of what you learned your first year is already outdated. This is problematic especially for college students. Since the information changes so fast, the books assigned are only used for a very short period because publishers put out new versions like every other year. Every new version that comes out eliminates almost any resale value of the previous version, leaving the book holder at a loss. Let's look at what is being done to help prevent and eliminate this loss.

Google is making books searchable. If the book is still being published, it limits how many pages you are shown, but provides you with links to buy it from a distributor. If the book is no longer being published you can read it for free! Besides Google there are websites such as ebooks.com that is also working to digitize books which are suitable for handheld PDAs, Palms or computers. However, the cost of ebooks is still pricey. In fact there is almost no cost savings over traditional printed books. Perhaps this is due to the amount of time, research and editing that goes into each book. Given time, I think the price of books will lower dramatically.

Amazon started something with books, but still required the physical manufacturing of the book and then shipping it. Amazon's model helped utilize technology to assist with the sale and distribution of new and used text books. This helped users find the books previously unattainable. Amazon currently has over 200,000 books available for iTouch, iPod or the electronic book, Kindle. The Kindle has a dictionary and allows you to read books, it also allows you to read blogs, newspapers, and magazines. It is a fantastic invention that allows users to store their own comments or notes on each item. Best of all, Amazon automatically backs it up for you as well, so if you break or lose your Kindle you will not lose your notes or books.

The only problem I see with the idea of Kindle books is simply the increased cost of reading. One must buy an electronic device for over $300, and then buy the electronic books at regular cost. It is however an easy way to organize data and carry 1500 books around with you wherever you go. If the cost of each publication reduced in price or Amazon decided to go with a monthly reading plan for one monthly payment, it could help reduce the cost of attending school. One problem I run into is that when I purchase books for college there is around a 25% chance that I will not be able to sell them back at the end of the semester because they are already outdated. This leads me to not purchase a good portion of required text books. If publishers set a monthly price they would take a significant hit on item profit margins, but would perhaps make up for it in their volume.