As textbook prices rise, some opt for used

Assistant professor of mathematics Benjamin Sudakov faced a problem during the fall semester as he prepared for his linear algebra class, MAT 202. The publisher of the textbook he uses in class, Prentice-Hall, had issued a new edition with renumbered exercises and stopped shipping older editions of the textbook to retailers.

"Linear algebra has been the same for 200 years," Sudakov said. "No important changes were made, but [the publishers] were very clever about rearranging things. The previous edition was removed from shelves, and I couldn't tell the students to use an edition they couldn't buy."

The publishing of unnecessary new editions, along with the bundling of extra materials, has contributed to a 62 percent increase in textbook prices since 1994, according to a report published earlier this month by the Public Interest Research Group's Higher Education Project.

The study also found that the average price of new editions increases at twice the rate of inflation, and that the same books are often sold overseas for a fraction of the price in the United States.

"The author of the textbook for my [East Asian Studies] survey course made a new edition of the book, but only a single page was really different," said history professor Sheldon Garon. "I told my students to just get the old edition. In my courses on modern Japan, I want a textbook that talks about the last 15 years, but this was ridiculous."

On some occasions, professors have asked the U-Store to stock the old edition of a book instead of a new one. "One professor this year didn't want to use the new edition, and the publisher had a limited number of copies left," said Charles Harlich, senior book buyer for the store.

The U-Store has responded to price increases by making more used books available for purchase, Harlich said.

"If professors send us a list of textbooks a while before the start of the semester, we can send an order for used books to national usedbook-buying companies," he said.

Virginia France, the U-Store's marketing director, said textbooks for University classes can be hard to find because professors' syllabi are so idiosyncratic.

"Most of our courses aren't those huge classes at state universities that everyone takes," France said. "It's easy to find lots of used copies for classes like that. But a class might be taught by a different professor each semester or each year here, and each professor may want different textbooks."

Some students say that, even for introductory level courses, used textbooks are often not available. Katherine Chiang '08, who is taking MAT 202, CHM 202 and ORF 201 this semester, said the U-Store sold no used books for those courses. "I bought the books new, because it wasn't worth it to try to find the books used somewhere else," she said.

Students sometimes use the Internet to find textbooks. Sharon Weeks '08, who is taking both MAT 202 and the integrated science sequence, found a used version of her linear algebra textbook on Amazon.com for $35 less than the new edition would have cost her at the U-Store. That includes the cost of shipping.

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"I couldn't find the chemistry and physics books used at the U-Store," Weeks said. "The physics textbook is an 'extended edition,' and it's huge. Our professors even talked about how these textbooks are getting out of control."

Some university bookstores have attempted to negotiate lower textbook prices. UCLA's bookstore and mathematics department, for instance, negotiated a deal for the 2004-05 school year that lowered the price of a calculus textbook by $27, according to the Public Interest Research Group.

The U-Store does not negotiate prices directly with publishers, France said.

"We can't guess what publishers' price structures are, but we think it's unfair," France said. "It makes bookstores look bad, because we're the point of contact between students and these high prices."

The U-Store, however, is part of the National Association of College Stores, which is currently lobbying textbook publishers about price, France said.

The most prolific textbook publishers in the United States, college and university presses, have begun to recognize the severity of the price increases.

"The American Association of University Presses finally has textbook issues on its agenda this year. I can't remember this ever happening before," Harlich said.