Representatives from the University Libraries have started investigating the feasibility of making electronic educational publications available to students, said Nancy Eaton, university libraries dean.

Last week, Cornell University began a new project designed to provide free access to academic publications -- including course books to students -- online.

Eaton said Penn State already offers some online books for free, although not textbooks.

Eaton said some Penn State Press publications are already included, and others will be added.

"Penn State will be getting into electronic repositories, but we are in the early stages," Eaton said. "We are very interested in this movement."

J. Robert Cooke, biological and environmental engineering professor and the project's manager, described the Internet-First University Press as a way to "facilitate scholarly communication for faculty and students."

"Libraries are facing financial problems, and we are undergoing a transformation from paper to digital form," he said.

"This is trying to change the way higher education handles publication. We are making use of Internet technology and trying to utilize it."

Cooke described a current trend in educational publications. He said universities often pay faculty members to do research, give the research to a publisher, and then students, faculty and the public must buy it back.

His system would allow faculty to publicize their research and make it available on a Web site.

Then, viewers would be able to either view the publications directly online, print out copies or request and pay for a bound version.

Cooke said he has spoken with administrators at many universities, including Penn State.

Cooke said free, online publication of textbooks would allow students around the world to participate.

"Students at Penn State would have the exact same material as students at Cornell," he said. "This opens access to a vast amount of material. I fully expect students to be delighted for it."

He said many people would prefer to have printed copies, but with new technology and total legality, students would be increasingly likely to use it.

Rich Larin, a freshman at Cornell, said he has heard of the service but is not using it yet.

"I think the program will be very valuable to students," he said. "It's a revolutionary program for sure. Who can say no to free textbooks?"

Steph Cyran (freshman-nursing) said she would probably use the free textbooks if available.

"College kids already have to pay a ridiculous amount," she said. "If we can save money legally, it sounds like a good idea."

However, Jim LaBar (junior-computer science) was not keen to the idea.

"Even if it's free and legal and I can print as much as I want, I think it'd still be better to have a full bound print edition in front of me to save all the paper and ink and staples," he said. "I guess I am a bit of a traditionalist."

Although Cooke said he hopes this will become the standard in academic publishing, Eaton said it would just be another way to obtain information.

"This is just one more approach, because old formats never go away," Eaton said. "We already license over $4 million in several digital projects."

Twenty-one books, articles and videos are available from the Internet-First University Press at http://dspace.library. cornell.edu/handle/1813/62.