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Working with Preview Textbooks
What Are Preview Books?
Being able to get a free peek inside books is not a new idea. The
marketing mantra behind the giant brick-and-mortar bookstores is:
browsing sells books. These bookstores are designed to encourage
people to hang out (music, coffee, etc.). Hanging out means
browsing. Browsing means a potential sale. It's a proven formula.
 Amazon's Look Inside feature is an example of an online
enterprise taking advantage of the same marketing scheme—or
at least the part about letting the customer browse the books. Books
that are included in the program allow online visitors to page
through the table of contents and and a handful of pages from a
selected chapter. Considering the millions of titles that Amazon
offers, only a microscopic percentage are featured in the Look
Inside program. But it sells a lot of books.
 Google also has a book-browsing program called
Google Books.
Selling books, however, is not Google's primary mission. The
primary mission of Google Books is to provide free
online access to every book that has ever been published. And in a
landmark legal case, Google won a compromise that allows the search
giant to provide free access to books that are still under
copyright—or at least portions of them. So Google Books provides
free access to the full content of a huge online library—books
in the public domain and those having the copyright owner's
permission. The truly unique part, however, is providing this kind
of access to books that are still in print, including textbooks.
Of course a major textbook publisher is not going to let Google,
or anyone else, make their new $180 textbook available online for
anyone to use at no cost. That makes no sense. But what about making
a large portion of that $180 textbook freely available for students,
instructors, and educators who have the power to select the
textbooks for the upcoming school year? Unlike getting a peek at a
few pages with Amazon's Look Inside program, Google Books
shows the book with a few pages missing. The program creates an
entirely new paradigm for self education.
Yes, you will find pages missing from the Google preview books.
And, alas, it often turns out that the missing pages interrupt the
flow of a high-octane learning. To make things even a bit more
interesting, the number of missing pages often increases with the
number of pages displayed. The more you use a book the smaller it
gets. Of course it can be frustrating, especially since Google isn't
willing to discuss the algorithm they use for zapping those pages.
But as any mature self-learner knows, it is better to have free
access to 80% of a really good textbook than 100% of one that is out
of date or so poorly written that no one would publish it.
 Are you still bothered by the missing-pages thing with Google
Books? Then consider the fact that there is usually more than
one textbook available for the same course. Let's say there are
three of those $180 textbooks, each available in part. Between the
three books, you are likely to have most of the subject content
available to you. And there is the added bonus of being able to
study the same topic from several different viewpoints and styles of
presentation.
For a serious learner, the advantages of working with Google
Books far outweighs the annoying disadvantage of some missing
pages.
Using Preview Books at Free-Ed.Net
When we introduced preview books as a serious learning
resource at Free-Ed.Net, we had no idea that it would
catch on so quickly and become the most popular learning
gadget on the site.
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A Word about
Today's Textbooks
by David L. Heiserman |
 This
is more of a personal reflection that an
academic presentation. Opinions expressed here
are not critical to the essential mission of
Free-Ed.Net. |
Having been a student, teacher, author, and publishing
consultant across five decades, I'm privileged to be a
first-hand witness to the evolution of today's textbook; and
I would like to share a few thoughts about some sticky
issues surrounding the current textbook industry.
I am well-acquainted with the widespread complains about
the books being too large and heavy, too expensive, and
rigged for obsolescence. It appears to be another instance
of the altruistic, pristine demeanor of education v.
the money-grubbing, down-and-dirty tactics of corporation
enterprise. Or some would like to think it is all that clear
and simple. Not so. I like to try a more reasonable and
realistic approach.
Have you noticed that there is relatively little outcry
about the size, cost, and short life of textbooks for
primary and secondary schools? This is largely because (in
the USA, at least), a number of individual states
effectively dictate the content of their textbooks. It's the
publishers who are set scrambling whenever a state such as
Texas or California announce the time for a revision. So
let's set aside the pre-college book business.
When I began my post-secondary teaching career, textbooks
were only about an inch thick (certainly less than 2
inches), used only three colors, there was a growing number
of paperback textbooks ... and mostly retailed for less than
$60. They were largely plain-vanilla—no
photos, no eye-catching colors, no margin notes, no web
links ... . The textbooks in those days were
containers of facts, ideas, and procedures that were
essential to a mastery of its subject. In those days, it was
the instructor's responsibility to provide the flavor and
richness of the subject.
Of course you know that textbooks are much different
today. (I'm not going into a discussion of how and why this
change had to occur). Today's massive, full-color, $200+
textbooks retain the fundamental content of their
predecessors—the facts, important
ideas, and procedures. But now the textbooks reach beyond
the scope of their predecessors and into a realm that was
once the domain of instructors; namely presenting the
meaning and relevance of the subject. That's what all
those full-color photos are for. That's what the countless
numbers of margin notes are about. That's why such a large
part of the book is occupied with quizzes, exams, web links,
and critical thinking assignments. Its doing the job of a
good teacher.
Textbook publishers have become the most relevant,
accessible, and economical learning resource for popular
education. And if the books, themselves, aren't enough,
there are the Companion
Websites that publishers develop and maintain for their
best-selling textbooks.
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