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Sunday, September 14, 2008

Law - Will law school texts be replaced by the Kindle?

It is in the talking stages, according to this story by Andrea Jones, a reporter for Seatle PI. The headline is: "Books a weighty issue for law schools: Could companies like Amazon offer an alternative to heavy tomes?" Some quotes:

"It's strange that kids that text message and carry iPods and BlackBerrys in their left hand carry in their right hands these heavy tomes called law school books," said Ronald Collins, a scholar at the nonprofit First Amendment Center in Washington, D.C. "The left hand is the future and the right hand is the past."

Are electronic books the future? Could companies like Amazon.com and Sony have the answer to heavy book bags?

To address such questions, representatives from law schools around the country, combined with book publishers and e-book device makers Amazon and Sony Electronics Inc., are expected to gather in Seattle on Sept. 27. * * *

Traditional publishers, of course, are not as quick to write off the print book. And, it would be years before paper was phased out.

But changes in how students research and buy books are already happening. For example, students increasingly buy from Internet retailers. And publishers are hurting from used book sales, Collins said.

"When you think that ... every course book that a law student buys in three years can pretty much be kept in one Kindle or one Sony reader, that is remarkable," he said. "That's remarkable!"

Buzz about reforming legal education is not new -- but attention to print as a problem is gaining momentum. The topic of casebooks came up during a panel discussion at the 2008 Association of American Law Schools convention.

"This old case-based method is too limited," Skover explained. "The method largely does two things: teaching students how to analyze cases and teaching students how to develop doctrine. But that's not enough; that's not all that lawyers do."

Electronic books are more flexible. For example, speaking of his own classes, Skover said, "A book can be out of date on the day it is received."

One idea for a new product, Collins said, would be to give law professors the ability to create their own electronic books in less than 45 minutes, picking specific cases, theories and lectures.

My thoughts: As a Kindle owner, I'd say the device has a long way to go before it could seriously be considered a replacement for the casebook. It doesn't do PDF or complex formatting, for starters.

Re the statement: "For example, students increasingly buy from Internet retailers. And publishers are hurting from used book sales." -- these two impacts are of course interrelated. $150 textbook prices drive students to the on-line used-book market. Textbook publishers across-the-board are looking to moving to electronic books to avoid this secondary market. Without the competition, prices could soar.

I do think, however, that there is much to be said for using a Kindle-like device for professors' "course-packs," particularly when they are simply a collection of cases. And it could be done right now (and most probably is), no need to wait for publishers to get into the market.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 14, 2008 10:43 AM
Posted to General Law Related