English-language textbooks in Greece Cover image Please select the cover image you require from the following selection: 5 x Discovery stories (SN) 5 X Transformer images (SN) Once you have chosen the cover image move the associated Thank you page to the end of the presentation and delete all the other cover and thank you pages. Printing When printing the deck you can reduce ink use by selecting: Ctrl p (print) Change the option to greyscale English-language textbooks in Greece Joerg Sixt 5 October 2017

The questions The Situation: Government subsidises free print textbooks (mainly in Greek) via Eudoxus Very few Greek publishers do e-books HEAL-Link & Libraries buy e-books (mainly in English) e.g. Springer Nature ebook collections Questions: Are English books and e-books used for teaching right now? What are the attitudes towards English-language and e-books in general? Do students and lecturers actually want them? Can Greece save money by switching some Greek print textbooks to English e-textbooks? (How) can librarians help students and lecturers with purchasing textbooks?

Greek print vs English e-textbooks: General observations Section breaks Section breaks are available in each palette colour and in a neutral blue grey. In most cases one section break colour should be used consistently throughout the deck – ideally following the colour of the Advancing Discovery bookmark on the cover page. Greek print vs English e-textbooks: General observations

The status quo: Why Greek print textbooks? Preserve Greek as a language of science and teaching Many countries use native language for undergraduate teaching Japan, China, France: science publishing in their native languages still popular In some humanities: non-English languages are important in scholarly publication Protect domestic publishers Economic benefits in using native-language textbooks Foreign language as an additional barrier Teaching difficult subjects in a non-native language can make learning harder Students like Eudoxus 80% of Greek students prefer print textbooks Eudoxus has a high satisfaction rate (Source: 2011 student survey of 5k Greek students)

Moving into the future: Why English e-textbooks? Students expect more eBooks 63% of students believe ebooks are the future (Source: previous survey) English is the language of science Overwhelming number of scientific publications is in English Success in research requires excellent (specialist’s) English You can still teach in Greek and use English books Graduate courses world-wide: most texts are in English even if teaching is not Making Greek universities attractive for international students and lecturers Growing number of English-language undergraduate courses across the globe Encourage more international students to come Attract international researchers and lecturers

(Continued) Get students ready for an international science and job market Ca. 350k jobs in Greece depend on export =ca. 7% of employment Largest Greek employers are banks and oil Checking Greek job sites suggests 50% of jobs require English language skills Future growth in Greece (McKinsey): medical tourism, advanced food processing Interesting: Greek students criticise obsolete curriculum

Case Study: Teaching and Textbooks @ Aristotle University Section breaks Section breaks are available in each palette colour and in a neutral blue grey. In most cases one section break colour should be used consistently throughout the deck – ideally following the colour of the Advancing Discovery bookmark on the cover page. Case Study: Teaching and Textbooks @ Aristotle University

Example: Aristotle University Analysis of ca. 1,800 undergraduate and graduate courses and 6,000 reading list items at the Aristotle University Our questions: How many courses use English-language textbooks? How many are Springer Nature books => students & lecturers have already “free” access to many of them How many of them are in Eudoxus? Challenges: Difficult to get and analyse data Is the data correct? (Are lecturers always updating it?) Identifying books correctly – who are the publishers, are they translations, etc.? Please take these numbers with a pinch of salt!! Interesting note: Ca. 500 courses appear have some options for English study & exams Mainly as an option to help Erasmus students.

Use of English-language textbooks Ca. 1,800 English-language books recommended for 445 courses Ca. 100 Springer Nature books recommended for 70 courses Around 1000 translations of English- language books recommended for nearly 500 courses* Eudoxus: 30% of all items in the reading list in Eudoxus 6% English textbooks 25% probably translations* (*)Assumption: if a book reference is in Greek with non-Greek authors it is a translation Springer Nature books Other English books Architecture 6 92 Biology 14 Education 66 Engineering 32 548 Chemistry 9 34 Geology 4 41 Informatics 18 76 Mathematics 20 70 Theology 7 630 Physics 5 57 Other 48 Total 102 1,733

Attitudes towards English textbooks

Our Survey We are asking about attitudes towards English textbooks: 20 physics professors in Thessaloniki all Greek visitors of springer.com Survey started 6 November - preliminary results: 39 out of 50 recommend English textbooks to their students 20 out of 35 likely to use it as the main textbook Main motivation: quality of books, teach students English language skills For others the main obstacle against English textbooks is lack of English skills of students, department forces 40 out of 47 would recommend more English texts if freely available via HEAL-Link 25 out of 46 think students are fine with using English texts

What next?

More analysis Can you get data on courses and textbooks from your university? Aristotle has a quality assurance unit to get this data – what about you? Can we get data on English and Greek language textbooks from Eudoxus e.g. with print runs and pricing? Spend more time and effort on better analysis of this data What about running a survey at your university’s lecturers and students? For which courses and subjects are Greek or English, print or e-books better? Who can do this? You can try yourself or bundle activities under HEAL-Link or other associations of university libraries You may need support with data analysis Do you have researchers who are interested in these topics? We are happy to assist as well

Possible lines of action Are there cost benefits? I did a (non-representative) spot-check of 55 Eudoxus books priced €15 to €150 with average €45 Springer Nature and other publishers: e-book deals, collections (which do not only include textbooks) Springer’s MyCopy for €25 Other publishers may offer similar or other e+print deals How can libraries and HEAL-Link support students and lecturers? Not only Eudoxus but also supplementary reading Does your acquisition strategy take teaching into account? Does your university want to become more international and attract international talent? How does teaching and textbooks support this? How can your university support you?