Courtesy of Textbook RebellionThe “Textbook Rebel” battles it out with “Mr. $200 Textbook” as part of a campaign to raise awareness about escalating book prices and cheaper alternatives.
Exorbitant college textbook prices have given rise to a “textbook rebellion,” which may be coming to a campus near you.
A coalition of students, parents, professors and organizations including the Student Public Interest Research Groups, have banded together to promote more affordable alternatives to the $200 textbook — an amount that is not uncommon for science, economics, accounting and math students, among other pricey majors.
So if you see a big van pull up on your college campus, don’t be surprised if a giant yellow textbook — called Textbook Rebel — jumps out to do battle with Mr. $200 Textbook, as part of the cross-country tour organized by the Student PIRGs.
“Our goal is to collect student signatures on a petition, which we we’ll use to get the word out to faculty and call on decision makers to take action,” said Nicole Allen, textbook advocate at the Student PIRGs.
The coalition also hopes to raise awareness about cheaper alternatives like “open textbooks,” which are offered under a license that allows you to read free online, or to obtain a print copy for a fraction of the cost of traditional hard-copy competitors.
Indeed, textbook prices increased 22 percent over the last four years, according to the Student PIRGs, or more than four times the rate of inflation. On average, students at four-year public colleges were estimated to spend $1,137 on books and supplies during the 2010-2011 academic year, according to the College Board. To ease the burden, a survey conducted by the Student PIRGs found that many students simply aren’t buying at least one of the required texts.
But there are ways to save while the textbook rebels fight the good fight. Last August, I wrote a post that surveyed the various ways to save money on textbooks, from finding free texts online to renting books on campus. And in January, we took a closer look at the many comparison sites that do a lot of the legwork for you.
Over the course of the last year, several new options emerged, some of which were created by recent graduates who were exasperated by the book-buying process themselves. Those are highlighted below:
Amazon.com. You can now rent eligible Kindle textbooks and read them on your computer, no Kindle required, or on your smartphone. You can also customize the rental periods to any length between 30 and 360 days and pay for the specific chunk of time you need the book (and can add time if you need to). The books aren’t printable, but you do have access to margin notes and highlighted text, even after the rental has expired.
Just keep in mind that digital textbooks aren’t always the best deal. Be sure to compare prices with other hard-copy rental options, as well as buying a used copy of the book, which you can typically sell again.
SwoopThat.com. Similar to Getchabooks.com (featured in this Bucks post), this Web site was created by four recent college graduates and aims at students at specific colleges — in this case, more than 2,300 schools. After you plug in your college name and courses, the site serves up the list of books that you need and where to find them at the lowest cost. “Our algorithms help students find the cheapest places to buy all their books collectively, rather than one at a time,” according to the Web site. That calculation includes shipping.
Jonny Simkin, one of the sites’ co-founders, said the site currently searches Amazon, Half, Alibris, Abebooks, Chegg, BookRenter, eBooks.com, and Cengage Brain. The site, he added, has partnerships with “all the major booksellers,” which are slowly being added to the site.
SwoopThat also helps students sell their books by searching online vendors for the highest buyback price.
In addition, the site also has an online exchange for each school that helps students buy and sell books with people nearby. “When a student enters their courses and views their book list, they can compare prices between other local students and the Web,” Mr. Simkin said, “and if they want to buy from a local student, they just arrange a meeting place on or near campus.”
Affordabook.com. This site, also created by a former undergraduate, compares prices from 15 textbook retailers on the Web, including Amazon.com, Chegg, Half.com, Ebay and several others. “I was frustrated with the university bookstores and how they charge hundreds for textbooks that you can find online for a fraction of the cost,” said Vincent Thomas, who created the site about five years ago when he was a junior at Virginia Tech.
LocalTextbook.com is essentially an online classifieds section for textbooks, which aims to help students buy and sell books with other people on their campus; that way, everybody saves money on shipping costs. Still, it does cost something: you need to pay $3 to list each book (or, you can earn credits by referring friends to use the service).
Right now, the listings on the Web site — created by a college senior — are located on only five campuses in Ohio, but they hope to expand this year.
Open textbooks. These books are much less expensive than traditional textbooks, but it’s basically up to your professors to select them — if they don’t, you’re out of luck. “Professors can save students thousands by assigning open textbooks,” Ms. Allen of the Student PIRGs said. “That is why our campaign focuses on getting the word out to professors, and letting them know this is out there.”
These books can be read online free, while hard copies are typically a fraction of the cost of traditional books. You can download the book to your computer or phone, or print a printable PDF. Hard copies typically cost $20 to $40, according to the Student PIRGs, either in the bookstore or online.
In addition, the “open“ license typically gives professors more flexibility to tailor the material to fit a particular course by removing unneeded chapters or adding new material. The Student PIRGs site has a catalog of open textbooks and publishers (Flat World Knowledge, which offers open books, is also part of the “rebellion” coalition).
The Student PIRGs list their own book-buying tips here.
Have you started book shopping? Let us know what sites you have the best and worst experiences with in the comment section below.
Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=0d3fc2e5b25a947e91d444c90d562a4b
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