scanning textbook pages

This is my first question to this list.  

I am the librarian at a private high school. We run a laptop program within a wireless network: each student (grade 7-12) has his or her own laptop computer, as do all teachers. Integration of technology into curriculum is highly supported.  

Concerned about issues of weight (bookbags, sports equipment, a laptop computer) that students must handle during the school day, some of our faculty came up with the idea of scanning textbook pages on a routine basis, then posting them to our network so that students would not have to carry their books home. The conditions they propose to place on this activity are as follows: 1) All students will still purchase the required textbook 2) Scanning will be done in small segments, say, a chapter at a time, and each segment will be "destroyed" after a short period. 3) The scanned pages will be available online behind password protection.  

In this way, a teacher could post homework to his or her Web page, students could read the pages online and complete assignments, either through e-mail or print. (Online assignments are already becoming a fixture at our school, and students like this way of doing business.)  

I have suggested that permission from the publishers might be a good idea if they insist on pursuing this project (which seems to tackle the problem in several wrongheaded ways, but that's just the opinion of the media specialist), but frankly the whole thing makes me nervous. Do you have any comments/advice for me? Thank you.  

Dera Weaver
Coordinator of Information Services
Athens Academy
Athens, GA Received on Tue Sep 24 2002 - 20:34:55 GMT