E-reserves may triumph over course packets

It's open season on wallets at the beginning of each semester — a painful time for students forking over several hundreds of dollars for books and course packets.

Students looking to cut costs can buy used books or read materials placed on reserve by faculty members for their classes. Soon, they may even be able to save money on course packets.

In the fall of 1998, the library established the Electronic Course Reserve Service, an electronic resource for course materials restricted to students enrolled in the classes. From its modest beginnings of eight courses, the e-reserve has steadily expanded to offer readings for over 50 courses this semester.

The e-reserve is a free resource for students because the library — unlike copy centers — does not pass on copyright fees to students.

However, she added that occasionally the library is not able to obtain copyright clearance because some publishers are not comfortable having their materials on the Web, even though the e-reserve is password protected.

Though several professors have replaced the course packets with the e-reserve, University Reserve Librarian Paula Clancy noted most faculty members have chosen to use the e-reserve as a complement to packet readings.

Professors can place core readings in a packet and both the required and supplementary reserves on the e-reserve, she said.

Some faculty members have moved reading materials online that were initially in the course packets, making the packets slimmer and more affordable for students, Clancy explained.

For some courses, the reading material on the e-reserve is identical to the course packets available at the copy centers.

Economics professor Alan Blinder said in an e-mail that he chose to duplicate the materials to give students freedom of choice.

"Pequod has only the required readings; the electronic and conventional reserves also have the optional readings," he explained.

Clancy observed that when students have a choice, they usually chose to buy the course packets.

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"When the course packet and e-reserve readings are identical, most or many students will purchase the packet," she said, noting that some professors fail to tell their students at the beginning of the term about the e-reserve.

The three copy centers that sell course packets — Pequod, Print-It and Triangle — said that they have little control over the copyright fees that they must pass on to students.

"There is an organization called the Copyright Clearance Center, and they're middlemen for the publishing industry," Pequod founder Andre Liu '91 explained. We submit requests directly to them, they go to the publishers, and come back to us with a price per page licensing fee."

"It's completely non-negotiable and then there is a mark-up which is a fee for the Copyright Clearance Center," he added. "This plus our own fee for copying, binding and retailing makes up the price of the packet."

Pequod does far more business in course packets than its two competitors. For this semester, Pequod listed packets for 163 courses, more than three times Print-It (44) and Triangle (2) combined. Several professors interviewed for this article were not even aware that Pequod had competitors.

Pequod — which recently moved to the U-Store from its old location at 6 Nassau Street — appears to have picked up business as a result of its new location, according to Liu.

"It's a little early to tell, but my gut feeling tells me that due to the convenient location, student business has picked up," he said.

Faculty members were generally satisfied with the packets that Pequod produced, though Pequod may be a victim of its own success.

Religion lecturer Beth Eddy said she took her business to Print-It because it was less busy.

"I have no great preference for Print-It over Pequod. I simply try to throw business to the underdog as a general rule unless it doesn't make sense for some good reason," she said in an e-mail.

East Asian Studies professor Christine Marran said in an e-mail that she brought her business to Triangle because "Pequod gets so much business from the University, they sometimes overlook details and can be occasionally grumpy."

The arrival of the e-reserve may fundamentally change the market for course packets in the next few years.

Economics professor Uwe Reinhardt said that he has always worked with Pequod.

"Andre Liu is my former student, and I like his attitude towards business. He has been a reliable supplier, from my perspective," he said in an e-mail.

English professor Mark Hansen said he likes using Pequod because it can accommodate him better on a short time frame.

"I like the flexibility of making final decisions close to the beginning of class, or in some cases even after having met with my class," he explained.

Classics professor John Ma agreed that setting up the e-reserve for his course saved him time, though he said his students were not yet comfortable with the new technology.

"It's convenient for the professor," he said. "Instead of endless running around, gathering books and filling out copyright forms — which you have to do for a Pequod packet — we've been constituting an electronic library of articles, which we can pull off the electronic shelf," he said.

Clancy said professors who have concerns about the nascent technology should use the two forms to complement each other.

"The technology is still new —teachers and students have to feel comfortable because there is a difference between having [the readings] in their hands and having to go to the website," she said.