Textbook - Wikipedia

Textbook - Wikipedia
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For other uses, see
Textbook (disambiguation)
Type of academic study book
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deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a
worldwide view
of the subject
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December 2013
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Textbooks written in
Pashto
distributed to Afghan school children
textbook
is a
book
containing a comprehensive compilation of content in a branch of
study
serving to explain the subject. Textbooks are produced to meet the needs of educators, usually at educational institutions, as well as learners (who could be independent learners outside of formal education).
Schoolbooks
are textbooks and other books used in schools.
Today, many textbooks are published in both print and digital formats.
History
edit
Ancient civilizations
edit
School textbooks used during the
Japanese occupation of Hong Kong
The history of textbooks dates back to ancient civilizations. For example,
Ancient Greeks
wrote educational texts. The modern textbook has its roots in the mass production made possible by the printing press.
Johannes Gutenberg
himself may have printed editions of
Ars Minor
, a schoolbook on Latin grammar by
Aelius Donatus
. Early textbooks were used by tutors and teachers (e.g. alphabet books), as well as by individuals who taught themselves.
The Greek philosopher
Socrates
lamented the loss of knowledge because the media of transmission were changing.
Before the invention of the
Greek alphabet
2,500 years ago, knowledge and stories were recited aloud, much like
Homer
's epic poems. The new technology of writing meant stories no longer needed to be memorized, a development Socrates feared would weaken the Greeks' mental capacities for memorizing and retelling. (Ironically, we know about Socrates' concerns only because they were written down by his student
Plato
in his famous Dialogues.)
The printing press
edit
The next revolution in the field of books came with the 15th-century invention of printing with changeable type. The invention is attributed to German metalsmith Johannes Gutenberg, who cast type in molds using a melted metal alloy and constructed a wooden-screw
printing press
to transfer the image onto paper.
Gutenberg's first and only large-scale printing effort was the now iconic
Gutenberg Bible
in the 1450s – a Latin translation from the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek
New Testament
. Gutenberg's invention made mass production of texts possible for the first time. Although the Gutenberg Bible itself was expensive, printed books began to spread widely over European trade routes during the next 50 years, and by the 16th century, printed books had become more widely accessible and less costly.
Peter Ramus
(Petrus Ramus) in 16th century France challenged the curriculum taught at university and published a textbook that could be used by anyone. It was a textbook with a structure of headings and summaries.
Modern era
edit
While many textbooks were already in use,
compulsory education
and the resulting growth of schooling in Europe led to the printing of many more textbooks for children. Textbooks have been the primary teaching instrument for most children since the 19th century. Two textbooks of historical significance in United States schooling were the 18th century
New England Primer
and the 19th century
McGuffey Readers
Recent technological advances have changed the way people interact with textbooks. Online and digital materials are making it increasingly easy for students to access materials other than the traditional print textbook. Students now have access to electronic books ("e-books"), online tutoring systems and video lectures. An example of an e-book is
Principles of Biology
from
Nature Publishing
Most notably, an increasing number of authors are avoiding commercial publishers and instead offering their textbooks under a
creative commons
or other open license.
Market
edit
The market for textbooks
edit
Sri Lanka emergency medical technician textbook
As in many industries, the number of providers has declined in recent years (there are just a handful of major textbook companies in the United States).
Also, elasticity of demand is fairly low. The term "broken market" appeared in the economist James Koch's analysis of the market commissioned by the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance.
In the United States, the largest textbook publishers are
Pearson Education
Cengage
McGraw-Hill Education
, and
Wiley
. Together they control 90% of market revenue.
Another textbook publisher is
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10
The market for textbooks does not reflect classic supply and demand because of
agency problems
11
New editions and the used book market in the United States
edit
Some students save money by buying used copies of textbooks, which tend to be less expensive, and are available from many college bookstores in the US, who buy them back from students at the end of a term. Books that are not being re-used at the school are often purchased by an off-campus wholesaler for 0–30% of the new cost, for distribution to other bookstores. Some textbook companies have countered this by encouraging teachers to assign homework that must be done on the publisher's website. Students with a new textbook can use the pass code in the book to register on the site; otherwise they must pay the publisher to access the website and complete assigned homework.
Students who look beyond the campus bookstore can typically find lower prices. With the ISBN or title, author and edition, most textbooks can be located through online used booksellers or retailers.
Most leading textbook companies publish a new edition every 3 or 4 years, more frequently in math and science. Harvard economics chair James K. Stock has stated that new editions are often not about significant improvements to the content. "New editions are to a considerable extent simply another tool used by publishers and textbook authors to maintain their revenue stream, that is, to keep up prices."
12
A study conducted by The Student
PIRGs
found that a new edition costs 12% more than a new copy of the previous edition (not surprising if the old version is obsolete), and 58% more than a used copy of the previous edition. Textbook publishers maintain these new editions are driven by demand from teachers. That study found that 76% of teachers said new editions were justified "half of the time or less" and 40% said they were justified "rarely" or "never".
13
The PIRG study has been criticized by publishers, who argue that the report contains factual inaccuracies regarding the annual average cost of textbooks per student.
14
The Student PIRGs also point out that recent emphasis on e-textbooks does not always save students money. Even though the book costs less up-front, the student will not recover any of the cost through resale.
15
Bundling in the United States
edit
Another publishing industry practice that has been highly criticized is "bundling", or shrink-wrapping supplemental items into a textbook.
13
Supplemental items range from CD-ROMs and workbooks to online passcodes and bonus material. Students often cannot buy these things separately, and often the one-time-use supplements destroy the resale value of the textbook.
16
According to the Student PIRGs, the typical bundled textbook costs 10%–50% more
clarification needed
than an unbundled textbook, and 65% of professors said they "rarely" or "never" use the bundled items in their courses.
13
A 2005
Government Accountability Office
(GAO) Report in the United States found that the production of these supplemental items was the primary cause of rapidly increasing prices:
While publishers, retailers, and wholesalers all play a role in textbook pricing, the primary factor contributing to increases in the price of textbooks has been the increased investment publishers have made in new products to enhance instruction and learning...While wholesalers, retailers, and others do not question the quality of these materials, they have expressed concern that the publishers' practice
of packaging supplements with a textbook to sell as one unit limits the opportunity students have to purchase less expensive used books....If publishers continue to increase these investments, particularly in technology, the cost to produce a textbook is likely to continue to increase in the future.
17
Bundling has also been used to segment the used book market. Each combination of a textbook and supplemental items receives a separate ISBN. A single textbook could therefore have dozens of ISBNs that denote different combinations of supplements packaged with that particular book. When a bookstore attempts to track down used copies of textbooks, they will search for the ISBN the course instructor orders, which will locate only a subset of the copies of the textbook.
Legislation at state and federal levels seeks to limit the practice of bundling, by requiring publishers to offer all components separately.
18
Publishers have testified in favor of bills including this provision,
19
but only in the case that the provision exempts the loosely defined category of "integrated textbooks". The Federal bill
20
only exempts 3rd party materials in integrated textbooks, however publisher lobbyists have attempted to create a loophole through this definition in state bills.
21
22
Price disclosure
edit
Given that the problem of high textbook prices is linked to the "broken" economics of the market, requiring publishers to disclose textbook prices to faculty is a solution pursued by a number of legislatures.
23
By inserting price into sales interactions, this regulation will supposedly make the economic forces operate more normally.
No data suggests that this is in fact true. However, The Student PIRGs have found that publishers actively withhold pricing information from faculty, making it difficult to obtain. Their most recent study found that 77% of faculty say publisher sales representatives do not volunteer prices, and only 40% got an answer when they directly asked. Furthermore, the study found that 23% of faculty rated publisher websites as "informative and easy to use" and less than half said they typically listed the price.
18
The US Congress passed a law in the 2008 Higher Education Opportunity Act that would require price disclosure.
18
24
25
Legislation requiring price disclosure has passed in Connecticut,
26
Washington,
27
18
Minnesota,
28
Oregon,
27
Arizona,
29
Oklahoma,
30
and Colorado.
22
Publishers are currently supporting price disclosure mandates, though they insist that the "suggested retail price"
31
should be disclosed, rather than the actual price the publisher would get for the book.
Used textbook market
edit
Once a textbook is purchased from a retailer for the first time, there are several ways a student can sell his/her textbooks back at the end of the semester or later. Students can sell to 1) the college/university bookstore; 2) fellow students; 3) numerous online websites; or 4) a student swap service.
Campus buyback
edit
As for buyback on a specific campus, faculty decisions largely determine how much a student receives. If a professor chooses to use the same book the following semester, even if it is a custom text, designed specifically for an individual instructor, bookstores often buy the book back. The GAO report found that, generally, if a book is in good condition and will be used on the campus again the next term, bookstores will pay students 50 percent of the original price paid. If the bookstore has not received a faculty order for the book at the end of the term and the edition is still current, they may offer students the wholesale price of the book, which could range from 5 to 35 percent of the new retail price, according to the GAO report.
17
When students resell their textbooks during campus "buyback" periods, these textbooks are often sold into the national used textbook distribution chain. If a textbook is not going to be used on campus for the next semester of courses then many times the college bookstore will sell that book to a national used book company. The used book company then resells the book to another college bookstore. Finally, that book is sold as used to a student at another college at a price that is typically 75% of the new book price. At each step, a markup is applied to the book to enable the respective companies to continue to operate.
Student to student sales
edit
Students can also sell or trade textbooks among themselves. After completing a course, sellers will often seek out members of the next enrolling class, people who are likely to be interested in purchasing the required books. This may be done by posting flyers to advertise the sale of the books or simply soliciting individuals who are shopping in the college bookstore for the same titles. Many larger schools have independent websites set up for the purpose of facilitating such trade. These often operate much like digital classified ads, enabling students to list their items for sale and browse for those they wish to acquire. Also, at the
US Air Force Academy
, it is possible to e-mail entire specific classes, allowing for an extensive network of textbook sales to exist.
Student online marketplaces
edit
Online marketplaces are one of the two major types of online websites students can use to sell used textbooks. Online marketplaces may have an
online auction
format or may allow the student to list their books for a fixed price. In either case, the student must create the listing for each book themselves and wait for a buyer to order, making the use of marketplaces a more passive way of selling used textbooks. Unlike campus buyback and online book, students are unlikely to sell all their books to one buyer using online marketplaces, and will likely have to send out multiple books individually.
Online book buyers
edit
Online book buyers buy textbooks, and sometimes other types of books, with the aim of reselling them for a profit. Like online marketplaces, online book buyers operate year-round, giving students the opportunity to sell their books even when campus "buyback" periods are not in effect. Online book buyers, who are often online book sellers as well, will sometimes disclaim whether or not a book can be sold back prior to purchase. Students enter the
ISBN
numbers of the books they wish to sell and receive a price quote or offer. These online book buyers often offer "free shipping" (which in actuality is built into the offer for the book), and allow students to sell multiple books to the same source. Because online book buyers are buying books for resale, the prices they offer may be lower than students can get on online marketplaces. However, their prices are competitive, and they tend to focus on the convenience of their service. Some even claim that buying used textbooks online and selling them to online book buyers has a lower total cost than even textbook rental services.
Textbook exchanges
edit
In response to escalating textbook prices, limited competition, and to provide a more efficient system to connect buyers and sellers together, online textbook exchanges were developed. Most of today's sites handle buyer and seller payments, and usually deduct a small commission only after the sale is completed.
According to textbook author
Henry L. Roediger
(and Wadsworth Publishing Company senior editor Vicki Knight), the used textbook market is illegitimate, and entirely to blame for the rising costs of textbooks. As methods of "dealing with this problem", he recommends making previous editions of textbooks obsolete, binding the textbook with other materials, and passing laws to prevent the sale of used books.
32
The concept is not unlike the limited licensing approach for computer software, which places rigid restrictions on resale and reproduction. The intent is to make users understand that the content of any textbook is the intellectual property of the author and/or the publisher, and that as such, subject to copyright. Obviously, this idea is completely opposed to the millennia-old tradition of the sale of
used books
, and would make that entire industry illegal.
E-textbooks
edit
See also:
Digital textbook
Another alternative to save money and obtaining the materials you are required are e-textbooks. The article "E books rewrite the rules of education" states that, alternately to spending a lot of money on textbooks, you can purchase an e-textbook at a small amount of the cost. With the growth of digital applications for iPhone, and gadgets like the Amazon kindle, e-textbooks are not an innovation, but have been "gaining momentum".
33
According to the article " Are textbooks obsolete?", publishers and editorials are concerned about the issue of expensive textbooks. "The expense of textbooks is a concern for students, and e-textbooks, address the face of the issue, Williams says " As publishers we understand the high cost of these materials, and the electronic format permit us diminish the general expense of our content to the market".
34
E-textbook applications facilitate similar experiences to physical textbooks by allowing the user to highlight and take notes in-page. These applications also extend textbook learning by providing quick definitions, reading the text aloud, and search functionality.
35
Rental programs
edit
In-store rentals are processed by either using a kiosk and ordering books online with a third party facilitator or renting directly from the store's inventory. Some stores use a hybrid of both methods, opting for in-store selections of the most popular books and the online option for more obscure titles or books they consider too risky to put in the rental system. Rented items can be used for a set duration of time, then are required to be returned to the physical store or shipped back to the third party facilitator by the rental due date. Writing and highlighting is sometimes allowed in rented items, although excessive markup which makes the item unrentable is discouraged.
36
Overdue items are often charged a fee up to the retail price of the rented item. Rented items typically do not include supplemental materials such as access codes, CDs, or loose-leafs.
37
Textbook sharing
edit
Using textbook sharing, students share the physical textbook with other students, and the cost of the book is divided among the users of the textbook. Over the life of the textbook, if 4 students use the textbook, the cost of the textbook for each student will be 25% of the total cost of the book.
Open textbooks
edit
Main article:
Open textbook
The latest trend in textbooks is "open textbooks". An
open textbook
is a free, openly licensed textbook offered online by the copyright holders. According to PIRG, a number of textbooks already exist, and are being used at schools such as MIT and Harvard.
38
A 2010 study published found that open textbooks offer a viable and attractive means to meet faculty and student needs while offering savings of approximately 80% compared to traditional textbook options.
18
Although the largest question seems to be who is going to pay to write them, several state policies suggest that public investment in open textbooks might make sense.
39
citation needed
To offer another perspective
citation needed
, any jurisdiction might find itself challenged to find sufficient numbers of credible academics who would be willing to undertake the effort of creating an open textbook without realistic compensation, to make such a proposal work. Currently, some open textbooks have been funded with non-profit investment.
The other challenge involves the reality of publishing, which is that textbooks with good sales and profitability subsidize the creation and publication of low demand but believed to be necessary textbooks.
citation needed
Subsidies skew markets and the elimination of subsidies is disruptive; in the case of low demand textbooks the possibilities following subsidy removal include any or all of the following: higher retail prices, a switch to open textbooks, a reduction of the number of titles published.
On the other hand, independent open textbook authoring and publishing models are developing. Most notably, the startup publisher
Flat World Knowledge
already has dozens of college-level open textbooks that are used by more than 900 institutions in 44 countries.
40
41
42
Their business model
43
was to offer the open textbook free online,
44
45
and then sell ancillary products that students are likely to buy if prices are reasonable – print copies, study guides,
ePub
, .Mobi (
Kindle
),
PDF
download, etc. Flat World Knowledge compensates its authors with
royalties
on these sales.
46
With the generated revenue Flat World Knowledge funded high-quality publishing activities with a goal of making the Flat World financial model sustainable. However, in January 2013 Flat World Knowledge announced their financial model could no longer sustain their free-to-read options for students.
47
Flat World Knowledge intends to have open textbooks available for the 125 highest-enrolled courses on college campuses within the next few years.
48
CK-12
Flexbooks
are the open textbooks designed for United States K-12 courses.
49
CK-12 FlexBooks are designed to facilitate conformance to national and United States and individual state textbook standards. CK-12 FlexBooks are licensed under a
Creative Commons
BY-NC-SA
license. CK-12 FlexBooks are free to use online and offer formats suitable for use on portable personal reading devices and computers – both online and offline. Formats for both
iPad
and
Kindle
are offered. School districts may select a title as is or customize the open textbook to meet local instructional standards. The file may be then accessed electronically or printed using any
print on demand
service without paying a royalty, saving 80% or more when compared to traditional textbook options. An example print on demand open textbook title, "College Algebra" by Stitz & Zeager through Lulu is 608 pages, royalty free, and costs about $20 ordered one at a time (March 2011).
50
(Any print on demand service could be used – this is just an example. School districts could easily negotiate even lower prices for bulk purchases to be printed in their own communities.)
Teacher's editions are available for educators and parents. Titles have been authored by various individuals and organizations and are vetted for quality prior to inclusion in the CK-12 catalog. An effort is underway to map state educational standards correlations.
51
Stanford University
provided a number of titles in use.
52
Curriki
is another modular K-12 content non-profit "empowering educators to deliver and share curricula." Selected Curriki materials are also correlated to U.S. state educational standards.
53
Some Curriki content has been collected into open textbooks and some may be used for modular lessons or special topics.
International market pricing
edit
Similar to the issue of reimportation of
pharmaceuticals
into the U.S. market, the GAO report
17
also highlights a similar phenomenon in textbook distribution. Retailers and publishers have expressed concern about the re-importation of lower-priced textbooks from international locations. Specifically, they cited the ability students have to purchase books from online distribution channels outside the United States at lower prices, which may result in a loss of sales for U.S. retailers. Additionally, the availability of lower-priced textbooks through these channels has heightened distrust and frustration among students regarding textbook prices, and college stores find it difficult to explain why their textbook prices are higher, according to the National Association of College Stores. Retailers and publishers have also been concerned that some U.S. retailers may have engaged in reimportation on a large scale by ordering textbooks for entire courses at lower prices from international distribution channels. While the 1998
Supreme Court
decision
Quality King v. L'anza
protects the reimportation of copyrighted materials under the
first-sale doctrine
, textbook publishers have still attempted to prevent the U.S. sale of international editions by enforcing contracts which forbid foreign wholesalers from selling to American distributors.
54
Concerned about the effects of differential pricing on college stores, the National Association of College Stores has called on publishers to stop the practice of selling textbooks at lower prices outside the United States.
55
For example, some U.S. booksellers arrange for drop-shipments in foreign countries which are then re-shipped to America where the books can be sold online at used prices (for a "new" unopened book). The authors often getting half-royalties instead of full-royalties, minus the charges for returned books from bookstores.
Production
edit
Cost distribution
edit
According to the National Association of College Stores, the entire cost of the book is justified by expenses, with typically 11.7% of the price of a new book going to the author's royalties (or a committee of editors at the publishing house), 22.7% going to the store, and 64.6% going to the publisher. The store and publisher amounts are slightly higher for Canada.
citation needed
Bookstores and used-book vendors profit from the resale of textbooks on the used market, with publishers only earning profits on sales of new textbooks.
citation needed
Research
edit
According to the GAO study published July 2005:
Following closely behind annual increases in tuition and fees at postsecondary institutions, college textbook and supply prices have risen at twice the rate of annual inflation over the last two decades.
Rising at an average of 6 percent each year since academic year 1987–1988, compared with overall average price increases of 3 percent per year, college textbook and supply prices trailed tuition and fee increases, which averaged 7 percent per year. Since December 1986, textbook and supply prices have nearly tripled, increasing by 186 percent, while tuition and fees increased by 240 percent and overall prices grew by 72 percent. While increases in textbook and supply prices have followed increases in tuition and fees, the cost of textbooks and supplies for degree-seeking students as a percentage of tuition and fees varies by the type of institution attended. For example, the average estimated cost of books and supplies per first-time, full-time student for academic year 2003–2004 was $898 at 4-year public institutions, or about 26 percent of the cost of tuition and fees. At 2-year public institutions, where low-income students are more likely to pursue a degree program and tuition and fees are lower, the average estimated cost of books and supplies per first-time, full-time student was $886 in academic year 2003–2004, representing almost three-quarters of the cost of tuition and fees.
17
According to the 2nd edition of a study by the United States Public Interest Research Group (US PIRG) published in February 2005
citation needed
: "Textbook prices are increasing at more than four times the inflation rate for all finished goods, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Producer Price Index. The wholesale prices charged by textbook publishers have jumped 62 percent since 1994, while prices charged for all finished goods increased only 14 percent. Similarly, the prices charged by publishers for general books increased just 19 percent during the same time period."
According to the 2007 edition of the College Board's Trend in College Pricing Report published October 2007
citation needed
: "College costs continue to rise and federal student aid has shown slower growth when adjusted for inflation, while textbooks, as a percentage of total college costs, have remained steady at about 5 percent."
Education levels
edit
K-12
edit
In most U.S.
K-12
public schools, a local school board votes on which textbooks to purchase from a selection of books that have been approved by the state Department of Education. Teachers receive the books to give to the students for each subject. Teachers are usually not required to use textbooks, however, and many prefer to use other materials instead.
Textbook publishing in the U.S. is a business primarily aimed at large states. This is due to state purchasing controls over the books, most notably in Texas, where the
Texas Education Agency
sets curricula for all courses taught by the state's 1,000+ school districts, and therefore also approves which textbooks can be purchased.
Commonly used American history textbooks are customized for students in California and Texas.
56
High school
edit
In recent years, high school textbooks of United States history have come under increasing criticism. Authors such as
Howard Zinn
A People's History of the United States
),
Gilbert T. Sewall
Textbooks: Where the Curriculum Meets the Child
) and
James W. Loewen
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong
), make the claim that
U.S. history
textbooks contain mythical untruths and omissions, which paint a whitewashed picture that bears little resemblance to what most students learn in universities. Inaccurately retelling history, through textbooks or other literature, has been practiced in many societies, from ancient
Rome
to the
Soviet Union
(USSR) and the People's Republic of China. The content of history textbooks is often determined by the political forces of state adoption boards and ideological pressure groups.
57
Science textbooks have been the source of ongoing debates and have come under scrutiny from several organizations. The presentation or inclusion of controversial scientific material has been debated in several court cases. Poorly designed textbooks have been cited as contributing to declining grades in mathematics and science in the United States and organizations such as the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
(AAAS) have criticized the layout, presentation, and amount of material given in textbooks.
Discussions of textbooks have been included on
creation
and
evolution
in the public education debate. The
Smith v. Board of School Commissioners of Mobile County
case brought forward a debate about scientific fact being presented in textbooks.
In his book,
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!
, the late physics Nobel Prize laureate
Richard P. Feynman
described his experiences as a member of a committee that evaluated science textbooks.
58
At some instances, there were nonsensical examples to illustrate physical phenomena; then a company sent – for reasons of timing – a textbook that contained blank pages, which even got good critiques. Feynman himself experienced attempts at bribery.
Higher education
edit
Programming language textbooks
In the U.S., college and university textbooks are chosen by the professor teaching the course, or by the department as a whole. Students are typically responsible for obtaining their own copies of the books used in their courses, although alternatives to owning textbooks, such as textbook rental services and library reserve copies of texts, are available in some instances.
In some European countries, such as Sweden or Spain, students attending institutions of higher education pay for textbooks themselves, although higher education is free of charge otherwise.
With higher education costs on the rise, many students are becoming sensitive to every aspect of college pricing, including textbooks, which in many cases amount to one tenth of tuition costs. The 2005 Government Accountability Office report on college textbooks said that since the 1980s, textbook and supply prices have risen twice the rate of inflation in the past two decades.
59
A 2005 PIRG study found that textbooks cost students $900 per year, and that prices
17
increased four times the rate of inflation over the past decade.
13
A June 2007 Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance (ACSFA) report, "Turn the Page", reported that the average U.S. student spends $700–$1000 per year on textbooks.
60
While many groups have assigned blame to publishers, bookstores or faculty, the ACSFA also found that assigning blame to any one party—faculty, colleges, bookstores or publishers—for current textbook costs is unproductive and without merit. The report called on all parties within the industry to work together to find productive solutions, which included a movement toward open textbooks and other lower-cost digital solutions.
Textbook prices are considerably higher in law school. Students ordinarily pay close to $200 for case books consisting of cases available free online.
citation needed
Sourcebooks
edit
sourcebook
, sometimes called a
reader
is a
collection of texts
on a particular subject,
source literature
, intended for use as an introduction to the subject.
61
The selected texts are typically edited, laid out, and typeset in a uniform format before binding, and the result is often a
hardcover
book similar to a textbook. In contrast,
course readers
are prepared by simply photocopying or scanning the selected materials and then adding covers, front matter, tables, and pagination, they are usually bound as
softcover
books, and they are usually prepared for a specific course.
In American
universities
, a sourcebook may function as a supplement to or as a replacement for a textbook. Sourcebooks are also often the result of the increasing ease of
self-publishing
, prompting authors and teachers to assemble their own custom packets of readings which become sourcebooks in their fields. Hence, they may be helpful in academics and
education
since they provide a more diverse range of information.
62
Professor of knowledge organization
Birger Hjørland
warns, in the context of
library and information science
: "The word sourcebook is relatively often used in the literature. It is not, however, a meaningful concept. It is sometimes used about bibliographies, sometimes about anthologies, sometimes about collections of pictures etc."
63
In American
law schools
casebooks
are similar to sourcebooks, offering selections of
legal cases
and commentary, forming the basis for analysis and discussion.
64
Rather than simply laying out the
legal doctrine
in a particular area of study, a
casebook
contains excerpts from
legal cases
in which the law of that area was applied. It is then up to the student to analyze the language of the case in order to determine what rule was applied and how the
court
applied it.
65
See also
edit
Types
Casebook
– a special type of textbook used in law schools in the United States
Open textbook
– a textbook licensed under an open copyright license, and made available online to be freely used
Problem book
– a textbook, usually graduate level, organized as a series of problems and full solutions
Sourcebook
– a collection of texts, often used in social sciences and humanities in the United States
Study guide
– a textbook used to study for a topic, exam, etc.
Workbook
– a type of textbook with practice problems, where answers can be written directly in the book
Lists
List of medical textbooks
List of textbooks in electromagnetism
List of textbooks in thermodynamics and statistical mechanics
List of textbooks on classical mechanics and quantum mechanics
List of textbooks on computer programming
Controversies
Japanese history textbook controversies
Kanawha County textbook controversy
, in the U.S. state of West Virginia
NCERT textbook controversies
, in India
Pakistani textbooks controversy
Other
John Amos Comenius
– Czech philosopher, pedagogue and theologian who is credited by some with introducing pictorial textbooks
Orbis Pictus
– 1658 textbook by Comenius, one of the first books with pictures for children
Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
– a 2013 decision of the United States Supreme Court regarding textbook resale
Citations
edit
"schoolbook"
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
(5th ed.). HarperCollins.
"schoolbook – definition of schoolbook in English from the Oxford dictionary"
. Archived from
the original
on 18 August 2016
. Retrieved
23 April
2016
"True Stuff: Socrates vs. The Written Word"
Archived
from the original on 30 January 2013
. Retrieved
12 May
2013
True Stuff: Socrates vs. the Written Word, 27 January 2011. By David Malki
Marcia Clemmitt, "Learning Online Literacy," in "Reading Crisis?" CQ Researcher, 22 February 2008, pp. 169–192.
Wight, C.
"Gutenberg Bible: Background about Gutenberg and his Bibles"
bl.uk
. Retrieved
20 February
2023
[1]
"The Columbus Dispatch – Local/State | The Columbus Dispatch"
. 23 May 2011. Archived from
the original
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Further reading
edit
Baier, Kylie, et al. "College students' textbook reading, or not."
American Reading Forum Annual Yearbook
Vol. 31. 2011.
online
Berkeley, Sheri, et al. "Are History Textbooks More "Considerate" After 20 Years?."
Journal of Special Education
(2014) 47#4 PP: 217–230.
Buczynski, James A. "Faculty begin to replace textbooks with "freely" accessible online resources."
Internet Reference Services Quarterly
(2007) 11#4 pp: 169–179.
Campbell, Alex, and Mr Flint. "New Digital Tools Let Professors Tailor Their Own Textbooks for Under $20 And that's just one option, along with mix-and-match Web sites from big publishers and libraries of open-source content."
Chronicle of Higher Education
(9 October 2011).
online
Carbaugh, Robert, and Koushik Ghosh. "Are college textbooks priced fairly?."
Challenge
(2005) 48#5 pp: 95–112.
Casper, Scott E.; et al. (2014).
"Textbooks Today and Tomorrow: A Conversation about History, Pedagogy, and Economics"
Journal of American History
100
(4):
1139–
1169.
doi
10.1093/jahist/jau008
Chiappetta, Eugene L., and David A. Fillman. "Analysis of five high school biology textbooks used in the United States for inclusion of the nature of science."
International Journal of Science Education
(2007) 29#15 pp: 1847–1868.
Doering, Torsten, Luiz Pereira, and L. Kuechler. "The use of e-textbooks in higher education: A case study."
Berlin (Germany): E-Leader
(2012).
online
Elliott, David L., and Arthur Woodward, eds.
Textbooks and schooling in the United States
Vol. 89. NSSE, 1990.
Kahveci, Ajda. "Quantitative analysis of science and chemistry textbooks for indicators of reform: A complementary perspective."
International Journal of Science Education
(2010) 32#11 pp: 1495–1519.
Koulaidis, Vasilis, and Anna Tsatsaroni. "A pedagogical analysis of science textbooks: How can we proceed?."
Research in Science Education
(1996) 26#1 pp: 55–71.
Liang, Ye, and William W. Cobern. "Analysis of a Typical Chinese High School Biology Textbook Using the AAAS Textbook Standards." (2013).
online
Myers, Gregory A (1992). "Textbooks and the sociology of scientific knowledge".
English for Specific Purposes
11
(1):
3–
17.
doi
10.1016/0889-4906(92)90003-S
Richardson, Paul W. "Reading and writing from textbooks in higher education: a case study from Economics." Studies in Higher Education (2004) 29#4: 505–521.
online
; on Australia
Roediger III, Henry L. "Writing Textbooks: Why Doesn't It Count?."
Observer
(2004) 17#5
online
Silver, Lawrence S., Robert E. Stevens, and Kenneth E. Clow. "Marketing professors' perspectives on the cost of college textbooks: a pilot study."
Journal of Education for Business
(2012) 87#1 pp: 1–6.
Stone, Robert W., and Lori J. Baker-Eveleth. "Students' intentions to purchase electronic textbooks."
Journal of Computing in Higher Education
(2013) 25#1 pp: 27–47.
Weiten, Wayne. "Objective features of introductory psychology textbooks as related to professors' impressions."
Teaching of Psychology
(1988) 15#1 pp: 10–16.
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