South African academic book publisher Van Schaik is to sell textbooks in electronic format alongside its physical printed books, accessible through tablets, PCs, laptops and mobile phones.
Van Schaik is introducing its e-textbook “Africa-ready” initiative as part of a partnership with Ingram Vital Source, which is an electronic platform for textbooks used by more than two million students on a global scale.
“As digital technology is continually evolving, academic materials benefit from these advances. Van Schaik has made a significant investment in ensuring that our e-book solution meets the needs of students, academics, libraries and researchers,” said Van Schaik publishers in a statement.
According to the publisher access to academic e-books was previously limited to online use or costly offline access. “With Ingram Digital Vitalsource e-textbooks you can access your e-textbooks in a way that is convenient for you,” said the publisher.
Van Schaik added: “It’s not just a boring .pdf [file] like some other e-books out there, its interactive.”
The company said the e-textbooks are user friendly and is also available offline for those that have intermittent internet access.
