I'm trying to find a way to buy Doug West's Introduction to Graph Theory but with an electronic edition. I can't find one. What's the barrier for these books being electronic?
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where did you look? – Solar Mike Nov 14 '17 at 14:57
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4Why do you expect there to be an electronic version? Most books didn't have them until recently. – Jessica B Nov 14 '17 at 15:02
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14In this case the answer is simple: The author doesn't want his book to be available electronically. (I know Doug personally.) – JeffE Nov 14 '17 at 15:10
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It's also not a simple matter to produce a book on mathematics in e-book format. Sure you can do it, but it's quite a bit of work to produce an attractive product. – Rick Decker Nov 14 '17 at 15:24
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4It’s just such a pain to lug around textbooks. – Nov 14 '17 at 17:03
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4@dirtysocks45 I've got 4 large bookshelves full of textbooks, but I open them up as a last resort. It's just so much easier to use an app to search for content than to try to manually find it across all sorts of books. Plus I also keep my research notes in electronic format, so if I want a copy or reference to something from my library, it's a lot easier to copy/paste or screenshot it into my notes than transcribe it from a book. – Nat Nov 14 '17 at 17:11
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@Nat So you learn without textbooks? Could you send a link for a way to do that? – Nov 14 '17 at 18:22
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2@dirtysocks45 Once you get to the PhD level and beyond, there aren't any more textbooks, so pretty much all learning's without them. Before that point, you can still do self-directed learning, but 'course you need a textbook if your class requires it (if for no other reason than to do the homework problems and know what the class is supposed to be covering). Anyway, what kind of learning are you asking are you asking about? – Nat Nov 14 '17 at 18:28
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I'm an undergrad with a lot of notebooks in my backpack as it stands. I'm going to replace them next semester with an iPad Pro, but it would be good for my back not having to carry a ton of heavy textbooks. – Nov 14 '17 at 18:30
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Hah yeah, I always used a laptop to take notes in class; seems like paper notes end up getting archived (if not discarded), though I've still got all of my electronic notes easily accessible and searchable. For a link about it, here's a previous answer I'd written with tips about electronic note taking. – Nat Nov 14 '17 at 18:39
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1@Nat have you heard the study that says hand written notes gave note takers a higher retention rate? Also, highlighting a textbook might be useful. I'll take a look at your answer though. – Nov 14 '17 at 18:41
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2@dirtysocks45 Yeah, there're some strange studies like that. I've also seen studies about how people tend to retain things better if they're written in a hard-to-read format, presumably since it requires more effort. It also seems reasonable that people who're used to learning from hardcopies are more familiar with the process of doing so, such that they're likely to have some difficulty and reduced effectiveness while transitioning to electronic variants. I'd tend to understand those effects as being circumstantial, rather than speaking to a fundamental quality of paper vs. electronics. – Nat Nov 14 '17 at 18:44
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That's why I want an iPad Pro. I want the best of both electronic and hand written. – Nov 14 '17 at 18:55
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tl;dr- Many books aren't available in ebook form for money and pretentiousness.
Money can be impacted because it's really easy to pirate ebooks.
Pretentiousness is relevant because there seems to be a stereotype about printed books being more prestigious.
Worth noting that I'm obviously against this practice, as I see it to be contrary to the mission of spreading knowledge and making academia more broadly accessible. I would encourage instructors to select texts with electronic formats available whenever possible.
1. Ebook availability makes pirating easier
It's pretty easy to pirate an ebook. A quick automated script can take screenshots that're easily enough pasted into a word processor and saved as a PDF. Common ebook apps attempt to have defenses against this practice, though they tend to be fairly easily defeated (which I won't elaborate on for obvious reasons).
The same can be done with hardcopy books, e.g. as demonstrated by Google Books, though it's a lot harder and typically produces lower-quality results.
2. Many feel that hardcopy books are more prestegious
I have to stress that I truly despise this point. However, the one book that I've written isn't available in ebook form as I wrote it as the request of a PhD advisor who insisted that it not be available in electronic format. I protested this on multiple occasions, so while I strongly disagree with their logic, here I'll explain it.
First, we wrote the book primarily due to the publish-or-perish regime that rules much of academia. My advisor felt that, by writing the authoritative book on a topic, it would establish recognizable authority across the field. Students would know our names because they had to buy the book, and academics in the field would need a hardcopy of it on their book shelves. And, of course, publishing books looked good on their faculty activity report, an annual report to their supervisor (typically a department head, or the school's president for senior professors).
My advisor had also expressed the opinion that readers respect a book more if they can feel it in their hands, especially as a hard-cover book. The formality and expense impressed upon the reader the stature of the topic and the writers. We've recently seen an example of how some students can feel that electronic materials are less respectable in this post.
And while my advisor didn't say this, I think that it's important to note that, until recently, ebooks and the internet weren't a thing. Many older folks completed their education using only hardcopies, and due to that background, they have a strong emotional association between hardcopies and legitimacy, while electronic copies can feel cheap by contrast.
