The study examined the role of the textbook, not as a teaching tool but as an artifact in the professional culture of higher education faculty. The three areas of focus were visibility and review, selection criteria, and scholarly engagement and reward. The study was structured in terms of institutional or professional culture to determine if there are cosmopolitan aspects of the textbook that can be discussed in common terms yet be responsive to differences in concerns. Structured interviews, open-ended discussion, and questionnaire forms were used with 84 faculty members, 28 department heads (in 7 discipline areas), and 67 journal editors. Textbooks were definitely shown to be disciplinary vehicles with little deliberate interdisciplinary content. Many faculty members altered their textbook selection practices solely on the basis of price. Critical reviews of textbooks played virtually no role in the selection process. Selection was dominated by the complimentary copy. There was strong support for the scholarly worth of pre-publication reading and evaluation of textbooks for publishing house. Charts on the following topics are included: study group composition; content, reputational, pedagogical, and production value; decision triads; faculty perception of textbook price as a distinctly separate selection criteria; and research notions (textbooks and the scholarship of pedagogical authoring). Contains 6 references. (SM)