UC Davis's Offering of E-Books are a Flop

It is textbook season again.  Michael returns to school at MSU Bozeman in just a little over a week.

I just saw this in my UC Davis Alumni Magazine (Winter 2009, p. 13) today:

E-Books Un-Wanted 

Students may be quickly embracing the digital world, but not for their textbooks - at least not yet. 

The UC Davis Bookstore was an early provider of "e-books" in fact, one of the first in the country to have an electronic books program - but demand remains small despite their reduced cost, an average of 40% less than new textbooks.

The bookstore offered electronic versions of some 80 titles out of 2,700 this fall but sold only five digital e-books, compared with 106,726 printed books, says Jason Lorgan, book department manager.....

Lorgan enjoys watching students decide between the options. "For the first time in their life, they feel the printed book has value."

That last line (bolded) gives me pause.  Do today's university students value "printed books"?  Is this a remark geared toward the online generation, facebook kids, and texting culture? 

Catherine @ Reading In Montana