E-books in academia: Univ of Michigan Press going digital

College students have always been an intriguing potential market for Amazon's Kindle and other electronic book readers. In theory, students burdened by heavy and expensive textbooks could benefit from light, portable electronic readers. Amazon has long been rumored to have a student version of Kindle in development, though the company hasn't announced anything yet. In the meantime, some parts of academia are moving toward electronic books. The University of Michigan Press said this week it will transition to "primarily digital" production of scholarly texts.

Here's more from the U-M Press blog:

The ongoing challenge is to utilize all the emerging technology without compromising the integrity of published scholarship, said Phil Pochoda, director of U-M Press.

"Freeing the press, in large part, from the constraints imposed by the print-based business model will permit us to more fully explore and exploit ever-expanding digital resources and opportunities," he said. "Scholarly texts will continue to be subjected to rigorous peer review and will still be available in printed versions, primarily on demand."

It will be interesting to see if digital texts catch on elsewhere in academia. Our recent informal survey of students at the University of Washington showed that many students weren't sold on the idea of the Kindle as a textbook replacement.

[Flickr photo via Plutor]

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