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One of the biggest problems facing college students these days is the ever growing price of textbooks. The National Association of College Bookstores found that the wholesale prices of college textbooks have risen nearly 40 percent in the past five years.
In these recent years, the problem has grown from the simple overpricing of textbooks to an assortment of various issues.
Buybacks, for example, have become extremely difficult since publishers may choose to issue a new edition every other year, thus endangering the return value of the books purchased just a semester before.
An even more recent issue facing college students is the practice some publishing companies have of sending out their products in bundle packages.
Now students cannot buy only textbooks they need, but must bear the cost of whatever else accompanies the book, such as workbooks, CD-ROMs, or study guide sheets.
Campusbooks.com states that 65% of students rarely, if at all, use the extra “bundled” materials in their college courses.
Students may be able to alleviate the harsh cost of these elevating book prices by selling their used books back to used book websites or bookstores whenever the situation allows.
Buying books online, even new, is another possibility students have to cut the costs of buying books.
Many online stores and websites sell books at a discounted price; and certain websites even help students find the lowest prices for the books they are looking to buy.
Schools could themselves organize a semesterly or yearly student book trade/sell to help to students find an out-of-stock book or shed their old ones. Many schools in the U.S. have already taken to implementing this practice with some success.
Another possible idea is to create an online book exchange and selling area for students in their perspective schools.
In any case, if publishing companies continue to produce new editions of texts every year, it must be up to someone else to help eliminate these rising costs.
But “who” should take on that responsibility is the real question. The two main streams of thought have it falling to either the college or the instructers.
Instructors, for instance, could transfer their lesson plans onto online books (e-books), therefore saving the students the cost of the textbooks and bundle packages altogether.
Colleges could help by giving professors the option of choosing their own course reading material, and a review board to ensure that costs are at a minimum.
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