The starting point of the research is that after the liberalization of the textbook market in the 1980s, Slovenia failed to establish sufficiently effective market regulation in this area, which is why, after the end of the 1990s, many textbook publishers found themselves in serious financial problems, which required a change in the rules of the game on the textbook market.
In the first phase, the research will determine how textbooks are issued in some EU member states, and in the second phase, it will analyze the situation in Slovenia. The research will test the hypothesis that the small size of the market in itself cannot be the reason for the abolition of competition in the field of publishing textbook literature, while it will especially scrutinize the fact that electronic publishing and new printing technologies open up many new possibilities in this field. The research will show that competition on the textbook market in developed countries is not only the most effective way to achieve the optimal price and quality of textbooks, but that it can also contribute to the democratization of the learning process. In its final part, the research will try to propose appropriate mechanisms for the regulation of the textbook market, which would be adapted to Slovenian conditions.
The results of the research will contribute to a more precise understanding of the way in which knowledge is reproduced through the school apparatus on the one hand, and to a better knowledge of the communication circle of the textbook on the other hand. One of the goals of the research is to contribute to the expansion of methodological instrumentation in both fields.
The results of the research will be useful both for state authorities and textbook publishers, as they will be able to re-determine the regulators of the textbook market and thus finally regulate this potentially high conflict area. With this, the research aims to contribute to a better way of functioning of the education system and to the creation of a more user-friendly information and education system, which will enable a more effective flow of knowledge than before. At the same time, the results of the research will shed more light on the functioning of the education market in a relatively small language community, and will therefore be of interest to all similar countries in Europe.
The publishing section of the Chamber of Commerce will use research to obtain accurate data on the state of textbook publishing in the European Union, on the basis of which publishers will more easily regulate their mutual relations, and assess their efficiency and competitiveness compared to other publishers in the EU. Since the exhibition will also deal with the role and economics of electronic publishing in the educational systems of developed EU countries, this member of the publishing section will facilitate decisions about investments in this type of upgrade of their basic activity.
In addition to the direct usefulness for co-financiers and state authorities, the research will be useful for everyone who will deal with comparative analyzes of school systems and with the analysis of the way books are used in Slovenia. We will be able to periodically check its individual results in the long term in the Book and Readers survey.
Three-year applied research, lead by Miha Kovač, Ph.D., assistant professor at the Department of Librarianship FF ULJ.
2002-2003