Z-Library Helps Students to Overcome Academic Poverty, Study Finds

Re:Z-Library Helps Students to Overcome Academic Poverty, St... by crazygringo on Wednesday November 20, 2024 @08:13PM (#42199997)

I would assume that a good chunk of students in poverty simply don't have a device that works well for consuming books on.

If you don't have a tablet or laptop, just a phone with a small screen, I can see people saying z-lib isn't helpful for them. That they'll just use physical books at their library.

I can definitely imagine a lot of undergrads who would assume that if a book isn't available in their college library then they'd never need it anyways. (Rightly or wrongly.)

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Re:Z-Library Helps Students to Overcome Academic Poverty, St... by thfuran on Wednesday November 20, 2024 @08:48PM (#42200231)

>And remember that so many textbooks now contain a mandatory online component where assignments get submitted and tests are taken, so you're forced to buy it even if z-lib has it. (I'm not defending that... just explaining it.)

It's a disgrace that universities are willing to use books that have been turned into consumable goods by single-use software or usurious saas rental messes.

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Re:Z-Library Helps Students to Overcome Academic Poverty, St... by Xxfireman on Wednesday November 20, 2024 @11:12PM (#42201030)

Yes, this is how textbook manufactures sell to university. One time codes for online exercises / labs. This happens mostly for intro classes. I have no idea why universities do this, my guess is they are sold on hw problems being randomized so it makes cheating more difficult.

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Re:Z-Library Helps Students to Overcome Academic Poverty, St... by eesmith on Thursday November 21, 2024 @06:01AM (#42203058)

What I don't get is that 20 or so years ago there were professors writing online books meant as no-cost alternatives to the corporate publishing companies which controlled much of the academic market.

Why did all of those projects fail?

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Re:Z-Library Helps Students to Overcome Academic Poverty, St... by jfvinueza on Wednesday November 20, 2024 @09:23PM (#42200445)

If you don't have a laptop, the place you live in / study at probably doesn't have a good public library.

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Re:Z-Library Helps Students to Overcome Academic Poverty, St... by crazygringo on Thursday November 21, 2024 @06:31AM (#42203242)

Not a public library -- their institution's library. The context here is higher ed students in poverty situations, and I've never heard of a college or university (that isn't online-only, at least) that didn't have a library.

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