Crib Notes Find Their Way To iPods

The latest offering for the vastly popular iPod are crib notes for books commonly included in college and university curricula. A company called SparkNotes, which competes with market leader CliffsNotes, provides the content, which is sold by a firm called iPREPpress.

Students who pay $4.95 each for a set of notes have access to the usual set of study aids–plot summaries, major themes and motifs, study questions, biographical sketches of the characters. The iPod notes, however, also include several minutes of audio content for each title.

Kurt Goszyk, the founder of iPREPpress, said that students can listen to music stored on their iPods while reading the SparkNotes for an assigned text. “You can listen to your favorite rap song in the background,” he said, “as you’re reading about ‘The Great Gatsby.’” The notes will work with most versions of the iPod, including the very small iPod Nano, raising concerns about the possibility students will see a new opportunity to cheat.

Chronicle of Higher Education, 27 October 2005