How I would have wanted, when I was an undergraduate twenty-odd years ago, all the benefits that eBooks and eTextbooks are bringing to today’s classroom. To be able to carry all your textbooks in your laptop, netbook or reader – and not 30 pounds of paper. To have the most up-to-date content on a variety of subjects, updated frequently to reflect changes in industry or the world at large. To read a wide selection of important papers or books from the comfort of your home, whenever you want.

This year, the emerging  eBook and eTextbook market has been noted in the media as an alternative to paper copy, helping to save students money and giving faculty the added flexibility to choose texts right up until the beginning of the academic term. Current paper texts can also be supplemented with additional readings. And, in a computer lab atmosphere, instructors can have everyone refer to the same text at the same time online – without having to worry about students not having their own copy with them.

There are many options from an academic viewpoint of how you can incorporate these items into your course curricula, Consider:

• Building your own reference text using Seneca Libraries’ course reserves service;

• Asking students to find eBooks and contribute links to class to create a collaborative online bibliography of issues in your field;

• Displaying passages from your eTextbook on the classroom LCD projector when explaining key concepts, theory or formulae; or perhaps,

• Assigning different chapters from relevant eBooks for group projects without incurring photocopying cost.

If you use the more than 25,000 eBooks listed in the Seneca Libraries’ catalogue, you don’t have to worry about copyright issues – we have bought the appropriate licensing for our students. If you use eBooks or eTextbooks that are available on the internet at large, however, you need to ensure that they are Open Access or licensed appropriately through Creative Commons. A few good locations:

• Project Gutenberg Canada (http://www.gutenberg.ca/) - This site is different than the main Project Gutenberg in the US as we in Canada have different copyright laws. Use this one first;

• Open Access University presses like http://www.aupress.ca/  and http://www.ohiostatepress.org/index.htm?/books/openaccess.htm

• Creative Commons Books (http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Books) which provides free tools that let authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms/rights/licensing they want it to carry. All eBooks located here explain what level of type of license has been given by the author and what exactly you can do with the text.

The eBook and eTextbook industry is rapidly changing. With the growing popularity of eBooks, content in many subject areas , including niche areas and Canadian content, will increasingly become available. Faculty would be wise to keep up to date with initiatives in this field –  for your benefit and the benefit of your students.