A study published this week by a national research group confirmed that an unavoidable problem of student life just got worse: textbooks are getting more expensive, and textbook companies are doing little to stop it.
The State Public Interest Research Group released a study titled Ripoff 101: 2nd Edition
which surveyed faculty and commonly used textbooks in 59 colleges and universities nationwide.
The study found that textbooks are rising in cost at four times the rate of inflation, expensive new editions are published but not often needed, and book bundling is raising prices and making used textbooks difficult to find.
The bundling of textbooks, where companies add additional materials to a textbook and then seal it in plastic, poses a problem to students at Ohio University and across the nation.
Another practice called customization, where textbooks are modified for their use at a specific university, and thus stripped of all national resale value, is on the rise, said Jeff Strader, manager of Specialty Books, 5 N. Court St.
Thirty-seven percent of all textbooks here at (Specialty) fall under customs and bundles Strader said. There are a lot of books that I could sell used but I'm being required to sell all this value-added stuff.
The PIRG study indicated that 50 percent of the surveyed textbooks across the nation were sold in a bundled format, less than half of which could be bought separately.
The extra materials, which raise the price of the textbook 10 percent on average according to the study, are pervasively unused by students.
Quentin Arndts, a senior finance and management major said, I don't use the CDs.
Shaina Reissig, a sophomore education major, and Christy Cannell, a senior public relations major, said that in their years of purchasing bundled textbooks, they have never once used the extra materials.
The issue of bundling causes problems in classes as well. Biochemistry and chemistry professor Jared Butcher wrote a primer that was bundled with a class textbook, but only available in local bookstores.
By bundling the primer with the workbook and the textbook
(students) got a good primer for free
Butcher said. The downside is that students who order the books online don't get the bundle
and I have students who don't have the primer.
The main problem with bundled and customized textbooks is that they lose buyback value. A McGraw-Hill thermodynamics textbook at Specialty Books costs $140.50 and is bundled with a property tables book and a CD, but is not returnable once the plastic is broken.
What can bookstores do
to stop rising prices and bundling problems? Nothing, according to Cliff Ewert, Follett's
vice president of public and campus relations.
(Bookstores) serve as a clearinghouse
Ewert said. We support right of every faculty member to order the best materials for the class. We're a service organization.
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Matt Burns
