Buying textbooks is one of those activities ingrained in most memories of college, along with the despair at the cost and the lament when they had to be sold for a greatly reduced price, stored, or, in rebellion, burned at the end of the semester. But this fall, six colleges and universities will forego paper textbooks and distribute materials electronically to students  for use with Amazon’s Kindle DX, in hopes of saving paper and money. Not everyone is ready to close the book on paper textbooks just yet, however.

The colleges and universities participating in the trial include Princeton, Arizona State, and the University of Virgina, and they’ll be offering free Kindle DX devices to select students and faculty in a few classes to see the response from users. A big motivator of the change, however, has nothing to do with ease-of-use or lower cost to students; many of the schools are trying out the electronic textbook idea to reduce their paper use and, in turn, carbon impact on a whole. With many students now citing the green factor of a school as a key point that will help them determine where they attend, upping the eco-friendliness is no longer just a positive endeavor for a college or university, but a requirement to keep attendance numbers up.

Though the Kindle DX use for class reading materials could save a substantial amount of paper and, potentially, money (if prices for e-textbooks are lower than conventional textbooks), critics are concerned about the environmental impact of the Kindles themselves and the possible licensing limitations on the textbooks. The worry is valid in many ways; after all, by making textbooks available online (which the schools will do for Kindle DX use), students could just as easily be accessing them on laptops, which wouldn’t require the purchase of further electronics that will ultimately leach toxins into landfills. And while paper textbooks can be reused and resold with progressively lower prices, an e-textbook purchase would likely be a one-time deal and the cost couldn’t be lowered. But the benefits of students carrying only one slim device (instead of bags full of heavy books) and not having to purchase newly printed books after every small revision takes place in a text are too significant to be ignored. Stayed tuned to see the results of the Kindle’s college try early next year.

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