When UF sophomore Opeola Bukola sits down to do her assigned reading, she doesn’t drop a stack of textbooks on her desk — she just taps on her tablet.
The telecommunication and agricultural communications and leadership development 20-year-old has three textbooks and 14 leisure books on her Kindle Fire.
Bukola loves to e-read, and she’s not alone.
Tablet ownership has more than tripled among college students in the past year, according to the Pearson Foundation’s second annual Survey on Students and Tablets.
More students are reading digital books, according to the survey. It showed that 63 percent of college students believe tablets will replace textbooks within the next five years.
At UF, student interest in digital books is growing each semester. But changes aren’t happening overnight, according to information provided by Haleigh Morgan, a spokeswoman for Follett Higher Education Group. Follett operates the UF Bookstore.
Of the students who have used digital textbooks, two-thirds prefer them to print, Morgan wrote in an email.
The number of professors who submitted book orders for digital textbooks has increased. Follett expects this trend to continue, she said.
About two years ago, a team of UF Health Science Center Library researchers investigated how they could provide student services on e-readers. They compared the Amazon Kindle, the Barnes & Noble Nook and the Sony Digital Reader.
The team found problems across different platforms, said Clifford Richmond, the library’s director of information technology.
Now, there are many more devices, but the need for some standardization in published electronic resources still stands, Richmond said.
He said the lack of available digital textbooks is what’s keeping the market from growing even more.
“The driving force is going to be that the publishers come up with a pricing scheme that does not make it any less attractive monetarily,” he said.
For Bukola, digital book prices were not cheaper in all cases, but the convenience was worth it.
The instant accessibility actually makes her read school books more often, she said.
“When I can’t be on the Internet on my Kindle, I need something else to do,” Bukola said. “My textbooks are always right there.”
Contact Julia Glum at jglum@alligator.org.
