"In the third annual focus on Higher Ed Publishing in The Book Industry Study Group's series of Making Information Pay conferences, speakers offered a wealth of data that show a college textbook market moving slowly but surely to digital delivery, the rise of, and illicit support for, shadow digital libraries and the growing popularity of digital learning systems offering interactivity and analytics as well traditional content. The textbook market was about $7.4 billion in 2012; prices for new textbooks, about 2/3 of the market, continued to rise while used book prices held steady in the face of even cheaper alternatives such as rental textbooks.

Armed with a wide range of data on the higher ed market, Carl Kulo, U.S. director of Bower Market Research, BISG executive director Len Vlahos and Joe Karanganis, v-p, The American Assembly at Columbia University, outlined a high ed market in transition to digital. Vlahos offered data on a higher ed market of students ambivalent about digital texts but weary of high priced print material, while Karanganis highlighted a crisis in access to highly technical content that is giving rise to the growth of 'shadow libraries,' created by a combination of faculty and students, who have allowed their access to institutional network to be used to stockpile pirated content..."

View Full Article