Software offers lower textbook prices

Barnes and Noble's NOOKstudy, one of the latest items to jump on the digital book bandwagon, is being touted at the University Book Center as a cheap alternative to traditional textbooks — but to little avail.

The software application that provides access to over 250,000 eBooks available for purchase, including about 1,500 to 2,000 textbooks, premiered in July after a year of piloting at several universities, according to sophomore letters and sciences major Andrew Grossbart, a student ambassador for the product.

The abilities to highlight and take notes, to "tag" certain content for future reference, and to open multiple eTextbooks at the same time are a few features Barnes and Noble have been advertising.

According to UBC manager Michael Gore, the average cost of an eTextbook through NOOKstudy is about 60 percent of the price of a regular textbook, but the technology doesn't seem to be catching on.

Students at the university have largely ignored NOOKstudy, even though it is an option for buying textbooks on the cheap.

There was a small booth promoting it outside the North Campus Diner for four hours Saturday and fliers around the UBC, but many students are still completely unaware of its existence, much less its features and capabilities.

"I have no idea what the NOOKstudy is. I haven't heard about it anywhere," said sophomore psychology major Samantha Lichbach.

Others echoed a similar sentiment.

"I don't know anything about the NOOKstudy," said senior astronomy major Lev Nagdimunov. "I have no idea what it's about."

Still, some faculty think the technology will be a boon to academia — eventually.

"We've had several faculty that said ‘Wow, this is where it's heading, this is the future,'" Gore said. "And Barnes and Noble is the leader. We see where it is going. What students want, we do."

Electrical and Computer Engineering Chairman Patrick O'Shea is one of those faculty.

"On the NOOKstudy program, I can click on both student and faculty forums. Potentially, if there is a discussion about the book, it can make the text much more dynamic and real," he said. "Now, the physical book can become old and obsolete very quickly. Bringing it into online, real-time forum is very advanced. It connects professors and students to global communities, which is going to be tremendously useful."

O'Shea admitted he was a bit confused by the program, and that there are a lot of kinks to be worked out before it can run as smoothly as some other downloading software applications, like iTunes.

Freshman Chinese and romance languages major Nick Brown said he would be open to the idea.

"The NOOK remains a place I have yet to explore on campus," he said.

romas at umdbk dot com