ASU Bookstore

eBooks at ASU

eBooks | Electronic Textbooks | Digital Books | Digital Delivery | Reader Device

To assist you in understanding some of these terms and in evaluating and making selections of course materials, we've assembled some information about the formats, devices, applications and general information about eBooks in general and at the ASU Bookstores in particular.

Typically, most required and recommended books are available in new print books, used print books, and in some cases an eBook format.

The ASU Bookstore has been making eBooks available to our students for about three years. These eBooks are shelved with the print books and have also been available on the ASU Bookstores web site.

For Fall, 2008 approximately 14,000 titles for 7,700 courses and sections were available. Of these 14,000 titles, approximately 300 were available in eBook format.

Other important information about eBooks

eBooks come in multiple formats, including EPUB a standard adopted by the International Digital Publishing Forum, PDF (Portable Document Format), HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), XML (Extensible Markup Language), Plain Text Files, and Post Scrip, in addition to Amazon Kindle (AZW) Format and others.
eBooks can be read with applications such as Stanza, Kindle for iPhone, Microsoft Reader and Fictionwise in addition to several others.
eBooks can be read on multiple devices, including computer screens, smart phones, the Kindle, Sony Reader, COOL-ER, JetBook, and several others.
Currently most devices display books in black and white and "grey scale" (the Kindle is black and white) not color.
Several new color display devices may be slated for release within the next few months.
eBook sales represent approximately 1-3% of total book sales.
Many e-Textbook titles are sold as licenses and only allow you to view the book for a period of time, usually from 180 days to 360 days. General reading books (sometimes called "trade books") are owned by the buyer for the life of the book.
eBooks can be viewed in multiple ways including downloaded to a device, and viewed on a computer screen.
For some e-textbooks, the books are viewed by logging into a publisher server and are viewed while connected, versus a downloaded copy residing on a computer or device.
eBooks have multiple levels of print capabilities and additional restrictions, including non-printable, printable in pages and /or sections, downloadable to only one device, downloadable a few time, etc.
Prices on eBooks are dynamic. For many general reading books ("trade books") the prices are lower than the print cost of the books. For the typical e-textbook prices can range from 50% of new print book price to 80% of new print price.
In many cases, once an e-textbook or other eBook, has been accessed or downloaded, they are non-refundable.

In order to mitigate the price of course materials, the ASU Bookstores are diligent about providing your course materials in as many formats as possible. Currently the most cost effective course materials are used copies of print books. Used books are 75% of new print book price, and most print textbooks have some residual value at your campus store (up to 50% of the new book price) or through peer-to-peer sites.

If you have additional questions, please contact us at ASUBookstore.web@asu.edu.