What a Difference 30 Years Makes!Adventures in Mathematics Textbook Publishing

Ken LevasseurMathematical Sciences

University of Massachusetts Lowell 

Google: Applied Discrete Structures

Applied Discrete Structures for Computer Science

by Al Doerr and Ken Levasseur

• 1st Edition, 1984• SRA

2nd Edition, 1989

SRA Macmillan

• 1st Edition: written on a Wang Word Processor• 2nd Edition: OCR of 1st Ed and edited with Word and MathType• SRA : “no TeX”• Features included Pascal and Ada “notes”• No internet or computer algebra system• By 2010: out of print for years, copyright held by Pearson, but it had

been moderately successful while in print.

ContentsAvailable in separately or together in pdf or hard copy (lulu.com)

Part 1• Chapter 1: Set Theory I• Chapter 2: Combinatorics• Chapter 3: Logic• Chapter 4: More on Sets• Chapter 5: Introduction to Matrix Algebra• Chapter 6: Relations and Graphs• Chapter 7: Functions• Chapter 8: Recursion and Recurrence

Relations• Chapter 9: Graph Theory• Chapter 10: Trees

Part 2• Chapter 11: Algebraic Systems• Chapter 12: More Matrix Algebra• Chapter 13: Boolean Algebra• Chapter 14: Monoids and Automata• Chapter 15: Group Theory and

Applications• Chapter 16: An Introduction to Rings

and Fields

Genesis of our current project• Sage Education Day, Cambridge 2009, Rob Beezer and others

talking about open content textbooks.• Al Doerr and I agreed to track down the copyright holder,

Pearson and ask for the rights. They granted it, no questions asked! One condition: Include “Formally published as…” on title page.

• We then decided to solve our students’ $150 textbook problem.

Conversion to Applied Discrete Structures

• Scan pages of 1989 editiono Text: Reasonable accuracyoNotation: Terribleo Figures: Poor

• Import into Mathematica o Lots of editing - some student helpo Replace Pascal and Ada with Mathematica and

Sage.oUpload .nb and .pdf files to wiki.

• Student assistants: first pass, fixing obvious problems

Supplementary Materials

• Original editions: Instructors’ Manual only.• Creative Commons Edition

oWikioVideosoMathematica and Sage Demonstrationso Blog

• Under considerationoWeBWork collection

Getting the word out12 month span – top external sources of hits to our site.• 510 Hits: aimath.org/textbooks/ (American Institute of Mathematics)• 235 Hits:  sagemath.org/library-publications.html• 459 Hits: google.com/ (Searchs such as “Applied Discrete Structures”) • 184 Hits:  buzzard.ups.edu/courses (Rob Beezer)• 93 Hits:  collegeopentextbooks.org• 39 Hits: Merlot.org

Outside Adoptions

Winter/Spring 2014– Grand Valley State University

Fall 2013– Casper College (WY)– UMass Dartmouth– Politehnica University of Timisoara, Romania– Wright College (IL) - City Colleges of Chicago– Valencia College (FL)– Whittier College (CA)

Spring 2013– Grinnell College (IA)– Luzurne Community College (PA)– University of the Puget Sound (WA)

Economic Impact: at least $36,500 in 2013

At UMass Lowell

$22,500157 students

Previous Text: $150

Roughly 10% buy the Lulu

version for $30

External Users

$14,000Very conservative estimate based on

partial information from survey on

LimeService.com

Some courses are hidden behind systems like Blackboard