<p>Actually prices for some coursepacks can be well over $400 and it certainly isn't the paper that pushes up the costs. What does push up the price of coursepacks are the fees paid to acquire the copyright licenses. In the case of Harvard, there is more than a touch of irony involved since many of the copyright and intellectual property authorizations which contribute to the costs of the coursepacks are already licensed to Harvard through the Harvard Libraries.</p>
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In the case of Harvard, there is more than a touch of irony involved since many of the copyright and intellectual property authorizations which contribute to the costs of the coursepacks are already licensed to Harvard through the Harvard Libraries.
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<p>That's why I'm asking why Harvard charges for coursepaks?</p>
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College textbook sales are a $6.3 billion-a-year business, according to the National Association of College Stores. The cost of books and supplies for the 2005-06 academic year ranged from $801 to $904 per student.
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<p>Protecting that market is ALL the industry care about. While the computer software industry understands why they need to offer cheaper versions to students, the textbook industry simply believes in milking its customers for all they can. Their tactics not only include ridiculously frequent rewrite of textbooks but highly questionable kickbacks to teachers to obtain "recommendations" of the latest versions, and enroll them in protecting the campus bookstores through late announcements of text books. The situation is probably even worse in the K-12 where the lack of centralized purchasing offices allows for abject shenanigans. Inasmuch as a number of subjects require timely updates, one has to wonder about the need to frequent updates in economics or science. Does Calculus changes that rapidly for a new biennial version coming out like clockwork? </p>
<p>The entire industry, with the help of acolytes, seems to share the desire to render the books obsolete as fast as possible, and reduce the resale value of textbooks to a strict minimum. </p>
<p>The long and the short is simple: they do it because they can get away with it. One has only to look overseas to find out that the pricing of the SAME book is drastically lower. The only differences between the "foreign" textbooks are different covers and an occasional "black only" printing. Pick your most expensive textbook and check one of the Amazon foreign web sites. When one can save 50% --even after paying shipping-- there is little wonder why the US industry is trying to protect its golden goose of a market, without any attention to its paying customers.</p>
<p>PS Would it be hard for Harvard (just an example) to set a moratorium on new versions based on few criteria such as minimum percentage of new material in new books, and prohibit "commercial" arrangements that have a direct impact on students? That may help reduce the costs!</p>
<p>interesteddad, great question. According to Harvard, the University Library system offers over 6,820 electronic resources that includes article databases, indexes, encyclopedias, e-book and e-journal collections - that include a mind-boggling number of articles etc. many of which are used for coursepacks. E- Resources are free but tuition only covers the copyright permission of on-line material and not materials printed and packaged in coursepack form. Which of course makes the coursepack even more expensive because students wind up paying copyright permissions twice.</p>
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Printers are very cheap nowadays.
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<p>True, but the operational costs of those cheap printers run $0.15-$0.25 per page. (HewlettPackard makes most of its corporate income from selling ink cartridges.)</p>
<p>Methinks online books are a solution looking for a problem.</p>
<p>A Sansung laser printer is under $100 and the toner costs about $0.02/page.</p>
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The deans said they sent the e-mail this year because of concern over the growing cost of textbooks, as well as to remind faculty that more written material is available on line and licensable for institutional use....
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<p>The heavy cost of books and course materials can and do strain a student's budget and even financial aid offices. A switch to online materials can save thousands of dollars but consumer preferences also come into play here - despite high costs, many students do prefer and want coursepacks and sourcebooks. The fact that e-books and articles etc. can be easily copied is part of the solution - and one that doesn't necessarily toll a death knell for the coursepack or even mean that students would have to print out everything themselves. Coursepacks and sourcebooks can be compiled and copied from materials available for free to Harvard undergraduates - and I assume the same logic might indeed hold for other HEIs - so the cost of the packs can be greatly reduced when the University itself holds the copyright. If the demand for a switch to cheaper texts and use of online resources is great enough, more deans, profs and instructors will clamor for an administrative solution because all too often they just don't have the time or extra staff to compile the materials efficiently.</p>
<p>Coureur, you make me smile (as always)!</p>