SafaryU

Definition

SafariU is a commercial on-line service developed by O'Reilly Media and allows teachers to create printed custom-made textbooks from chapters of books edited by over 20 publishers (e.g. O'Reilly, Addison Wsley, Pearson Education).

These textbooks do receive a ISBN number and are shipped as printed books to the teacher or the local university bookstore.

The process

Registration and conditions

• A qualified university teacher has to register with O'Reilly
• Membership is free under the condition that students collectively consume a minimum of $700.00 USD per year in books and/or online subscriptions.

A give step process

1. Gather content from books

• 1. Book list is searchable and chapter contents are shown to the teacher
  2. You may add chapters or sections with a button

1. Organize it

• 1. You can drop/drag edit the table of contents
  2. In addition, you can upload your own PDF contents to be included

1. Choose some Options

• 1. Definition of the cover page
  2. Selection of the binding

1. Review

• 1. Generates a PDF

1. Finalize

• 1. This will commit the process and will generate a ISBN number
  2. You will get the book after max. 4 week (according to the web site)

Cost

• Books must be between 100 and 800 pages
• Cost/page is $0.16 USD, i.e. a typical 200 page custom book is $32
• Students also may buy on-line access to up to 10 books you used.

Discussion

~ did not test this service for real, but I find it an interesting concept. I may create a book for next semester. You have to plan ahead !

Current restrictions for the moment:

• Only English books seem to be available
• Mostly technical books (some business)