Going back to school may be becoming less painful on your wallet with the introduction of free online books. Freeload Press Company is offering online versions of textbooks, workbooks and study guides in the popular PDF format at no cost. The catch? The pages also contain advertisements, making textbooks appear more like magazines and causing controversy within the academic world.
Currently, 100 titles are available for students to download in subjects including accounting, mathematics, computer applications and psychology.
Within the textbooks pages are ads for products such as Culver’s Frozen Custard Butterburgers, FedEx Kinko’s Office and Print Service, Pura Vida Coffee and Total Recall Learning. “Liberating the Textbook” is the motto of the website created in 2004. However some professors don’t see it that way.
One of the most vocal critics of Freeload Press is Professor Randall Stross of San Jose State University in California. In the Aug 27, 2006 edition of the New York Times he commented that the quality of the textbook decreases with the presence of advertisements. Freeload Press’s response to Stross, written by Associate Professor Frank Werner of Forham University, stated that the price and quality of a textbook are two different things. He added that Freeload Press publishers have veto power over the type of advertisements.
McGill professors are divided on the subject.
“Textbooks are too expensive,” History Professor Suzanne Morton said. “I don’t understand why they cost the way they do. It’s not surprising why this was adopted.”
However, some professors believe that the online publishing company is not beneficial for the academic community.
“I fear that online books are not a good substitute for real books,” said history profressor Peter Hoffman, “because of the way we deal with and the way we process information, but online books can have a function and are valuable because they cost nothing.”
Some students are also adverse to the new boom in online publishing.
“Personally, I wouldn’t use it,” Cal Kufta, U3 History said. “I like using textbooks, but there is nothing wrong with students trying to budget to save some money.”
According to Statistics Canada, university graduates of 2000 owed an average of $19,500 to the government. Thus the option of saving more than $1,000 per year on books has many students opting for free downloadable books.
“I think students need more free services anyway,” said Christine Sinclair, U3 Philosophy and History. “Most students can ignore distractions and concentrate on their work. I’m not offended by the ads if I’m choosing to use it. The company needs sponsors to operate their website.”
Freeload Press runs its website on a sponsorship business model in which the company states, “Publications are written by proven authors and match the depth, range and length of competing textbooks.”
Since its creation in 2004, instructors from over 100 U.S. colleges and universities have begun using the Web site. Over 25,000 users have signed up and 50,000 books were downloaded. Freeload Press Company plans to add more titles to the database for spring 2007.
The Web site is designed to be fast and easy to use. After filling out a simple registration form and agreeing to ‘terms of agreement,’ access is granted to the online database of books. If students already have the free Adobe Reader software, the e-book is available within about 15 minutes.
However, students cannot go onto the site and expect specific textbooks to be there. Some professors elect to use e-books while others do not.
McGill recommends that each student budget $1,000 per year to “books and supplies,” although many students find that they pay much more than $500 a semester to the $4-billion a year textbook industry.