Small publishers expect to make a profit with hundreds rather than thousands of products; they do not have to strive to please the broad middle of the consumer population. However, limitations plague small publishers, e.g., they cannot afford giveaways and discounts or to print a teacher's guide in full color. (RM)

Traces the effects the relationship between printing technology, and publishing have had on the historical emergence of college physics textbooks. Printing technology before 1880, growth of the book publishing industry, emergence of college physics textbooks, linotype machines, printing technology, and textbook pedagogy are among the areas…

Argues that every year countless college professors are financially and professionally damaged and deceived by editors offering textbook contracts. (MM)

Textbook makers, buyers, and users are all suffering from censorship by vocal minorities. (DD)

All major textbook companies conform to preferences of larger educational markets (California, Illinois, New York, Texas, and Florida) and exercise self-censorship to appease dissenting factions and avoid alienating pressure groups. Recent censorship controversies have involved sanctity of family, criticism of free enterprise system,…

Describes the experiences of the author (a high school English teacher) in developing, writing, and publishing a twelfth-grade literature and language text that completely integrates the language arts curriculum, eliminating the need for multiple, unrelated texts. (RS)

Discusses the use of electronic books (E-books), digitized versions of books that can be read on a desktop, laptop, handheld device, or a dedicated e-book reader, in education. Highlights include use in elementary and secondary schools; available content suitable for education; standards; pertinent Web sites; and the role of textbook companies and…

A father and music teacher describes his frustrations when trying to get Prentice Hall Publishers to correct over 2000 factual errors in his daughter's seventh-grade science textbook. Textbooks featuring pictures of African-American women working in science labs may incorrectly portray scientific experiments. (MLH)

Reports the results of two studies of electronic book production, including production on the World Wide Web, and explains EBONI (Electronic Books On-screen Interface) that focuses on the evaluation of electronic resources and compiling guidelines for publishing electronic materials on the Internet for the United Kingdom higher education…

Mathematics textbooks are critical tools for student learning in American classrooms. Teachers use them daily to plan and deliver lessons, and students use them in class to explore and learn mathematics. Given textbooks' potential to support student learning, it is important to understand how they are developed. While pressure is growing on…

This paper presents the results of a study developed in the context of indigenous teachers education from Xingu Indian Park, Brazil. The indigenous bilingual (or multilingual in some cases) teachers that participated in this education program were from 14 ethnic groups. The research focused on a mathematics textbook production, written in…

These two papers discuss ways of improving the quality of educational texts used by the Open University in distance learning courses. The first discusses how text numbering systems should be used and when it is appropriate to use them; five recommendations are given. The last paper discusses how instructional design teams can best approach…

Tells how two teachers who have authored a number of popular geography textbooks got started. Describes what they attempt to accomplish when they write a book and gives insight into the difficulties that teacher-authors may encounter. (JDH)

Six behavioral statistics textbooks listed by their publishers as "bestsellers" during 1982 were reviewed by the author. The intent was to detect the presence of and to discuss the nature of some theoretical inferential inaccuracies, misinterpretations and errors. (Author/LMO)