eBooks — Technology for the Armchair or the Student Desktop?

New eTextbook workspace from Textbook Solutions combines eBook viewing, note-taking and searching in an easy to use, learning environment.

Gloucester, United Kingdom. January 24, 2006 — Textbook Solutions believes eBooks should be more than just a good read, and today announced the release of eTextbookViewer, available for free download from www.etextbookshop.com.

The added-value approach by Textbook Solutions differs from other eBook software vendors. It recognises that a move from paper to electronic books can provide significant functionality benefits to the reader, rather than simply delivering the same content in a different medium.

"Other organisations are trying to promote the use of eBooks for works of fiction, whereas we believe delivering textbooks in a more productive way is a more realistic goal than expecting folks to curl up in an armchair with their dual processor laptop pumping out 400 watts of heat.", says Phil Webb, of Textbook Solutions. "We took a look at the life of a student, leaving the social life to one side for a moment, and concentrated on the learning environment. We wanted to build software that would combine the different physical tools they use in their learning into an easy to use, electronic workspace."

eTextbookViewer combines elements of the traditional student desktop into a single integrated electronic workspace.

"It's like having a pile of textbooks, a paper notebook, and a stack of sticky tags, all available right there on your laptop.", Alan Bills, a Physics undergraduate at Oxford University, explains. "I can search across a pile of books, and within the notes, finding what I need in seconds, and I can associate the notes that I take directly with the relevant topic."

However, as Phil Webb pointed out “We haven’t completely forgotten the student’s social life - we are committed to providing eTextbooks at low prices."

eTextbookViewer could save a typical university student over £150 per year on the electronic review of textbooks rather than buying hard copy books for review and essay writing. The growth of the Internet as a research medium is now strengthened by the ability to purchase research books extremely economically, and have extensive extra search, annotation and page-marking functions to assist in focused and reusable research and education.

eTextbookShop will supply a range of textbooks for different disciplines, and will be working directly with authors and publishers to distribute new and existing titles, with publications added to its online store on a frequent basis. Its intention is to become a "favourite" on every student's browser within the next few years.

About Textbook Solutions Limited:

Textbook Solutions Limited (www.textbooksolutions.co.uk) is a learning technology specialist and an electronic textbook distributor, committed to lowering the cost of textbooks through the provision of quality, low-cost technology for the creation, secure distribution and utilisation of eTextbooks.

Trademark Information:

eTextbookViewer and eTextbookShop are trademarks of Textbook Solutions Limited in the United Kingdom and other countries.

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