Your report did not quite capture the mood of the Publishers' Association conference ("Illegal downloading among threats to textbook sales", 14 February). All parties - lecturers, authors, learning technologists, librarians, publishers, even vice-chancellors - concurred that the future not only lies beyond the standard textbook but requires collaborative, "enterprise" solutions if good-quality learning resources are to be made available to fee-paying students through their library systems, social networks and course management environments.
Experiments are already happening, and clearly innovative technology has a big role to play, but innovation also means a willingness to contemplate new business models, shifts in funding flows, fresh partnerships and an acknowledgement that it needs a joint responsibility to overcome the barriers. We also need to be realistic: the mixed-media model will be with us for some time yet, but we have a duty to work together for a sustainable "market" in teaching, learning and research resources.
Graham Taylor
Publishers Association
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