[Ecommerce] Slashdot: Textbooks online

[Manon Ress]

Slashdot:

Posted by timothy on Sunday May 09, @06:22AM
from the visit-manila-for-M1T-diploma dept.

An anonymous reader writes " The (sci-tech) Library Question is
reporting, "The third edition of A Heat Transfer Textbook, written by
John H Lienhard V (MIT) and John H Lienhard IV (U Houston), has been
made available on the web. The book is an introduction to heat transfer,
geared towards engineering students. It may be downloaded free of
charge. The authors explain: We are placing a mechanical engineering
textbook into an electronic format for worldwide, no-charge
distribution. The aim of this effort is to explore the possibilities of
placing textbooks online -- effectively giving them away. Two potential
benefits should accrue from doing this. First, in electronic format,
textbooks can be continually corrected and updated, without the delays
inherent in printed books (second and later editions are typically
published on a five-year cycle). Second, free textbooks hold the
potential for fundamentally altering the economics of higher education,
particularly in those environments where money is scarce."

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/05/09/0313254

--
Manon Anne Ress
Consumer Project on Technology
www.cptech.org
PO Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
manon.ress@cptech.org, voice: 1.202.387.8030, fax: 1.202.234.5176