Ellington

With a new partnership at the University Bookstore, textbooks might get a little bit cheaper.

The U-Bookstore and Flat World Knowledge, an online, open-source database for textbooks, recently announced a pilot program that would give students free access to digital versions of textbooks and supply related supplemental materials and hardcopy versions at a lower cost than traditional publishing prices. It offers options such as printing individual chapters for $1.99 or ordering hard copies of the books.

“The ultimate goal of our collaboration with Flat World Knowledge is to work with the faculty to provide students with high-quality, customizable, low-cost course materials in both digital and hardcopy formats,” said Bryan Pearce, CEO of the University Book Store in an e-mail. “We are working with Flat World Knowledge on facilitating on-demand printing of hardcopy versions of open-source materials through our Espresso Book Machine and digital delivery through the bookstore’s website.”

Eric Shellan, a student U-Bookstore board member, and Jason Padvorac, ASUW director of faculty, administration and academic affairs, are the leaders of an ASUW task force for affordable textbooks.

“We’re pushing the Flat World Knowledge approach because hopefully it will make it so that students will always have a choice — online or printed — that will make textbooks more affordable,” Shellan said. “We are working to raise awareness for faculty, professors and individual departments to make this a preferred option.”

Padvorac believes the collaboration may help eliminate issues such as soaring prices, limited choices and flexibility, rapid-fire new editions, and choosing between price versus quality in the textbook industry.

“The Flat World Knowledge people understand problems facing students and want to solve them,” Padvorac said.

The U-Bookstore initiated the partnership by contacting Flat World Knowledge to begin discussing the open-source environment and opportunities for the UW. Pearce said that the bookstore is one of the initial pilot stores in the U.S. and Canada to participate in Flat World Knowledge’s initiatives.

The print-on-demand option will allow professors to reorder, and add and remove content from the books to customize the information to their specific courses. Pearce said the bookstore is already providing Flat World Knowledge open-source materials to students when faculty members choose to adopt them. He also said the store would likely use a combination of books received from a custom printing company and those printed in-store with the Espresso Book Machine, depending on the size of the classes and which approach students prefer.

“Because the open-source model is relatively new, with a small number of titles currently, it will take some time to hold and deliver meaningful savings to a large number of students on our campus,” Pearce said.

Reach reporter Katie Burke at news@dailyuw.com.