Karl L. Wuensch wrote:
Very interesting what Appalachian State is doing with textbook rentals.
Ken, are there any local textbook merchants complaining about this, or is the university the only textbook seller in town?
There are no other *textbook* merchants in town because ASU has operated with this system since 1938. Each undergraduate class has one primary hardback book, the *textbook*, that is available under the rental system. One can order supplemental paperbacks and these can be offered by other local bookstores. The 2004-2005 rental fee for the entire year was $152. I think that the proposed charge for 2005-2006 is $156.
The fee is charged all students, and it doesn't matter whether the student obtains the book or not. So students are REQUIRED to rent books.
The bookstore keeps a close watch on books as I discovered recently. I added students into my perception class beyond the official maximum. Forty-eight hours later I got email from the bookstore informing me that they had run out of books, were purchasing additional books, and having the books shipped to the store by 2nd-day express.
Ken
Are students REQUIRED to rent the books from the university -- for example, if a student said "I bought my calculus book at a yard sale in Asheville" would she still have to rent one from the university? Interestingly, if the students are REQUIRED to get the books from the university, the IRS allows them (or their parents) to deduct the expense of the books (or claim Hope or Lifetime Learning credits for them) just like tuition expenses -- see IRS Pub. 970. That can lower costs a lot.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Karl L. Wuensch, Department of Psychology, East Carolina University, Greenville NC 27858-4353 Voice: 252-328-4102 Fax: 252-328-6283 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://core.ecu.edu/psyc/wuenschk/klw.htm
----- Original Message ----- From: "Ken Steele" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences" <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, January 16, 2005 12:09 PM
Subject: Re: High cost of textbooks
It was an interesting article but it seemed to me that Roedieger's real complaint was that the textbook author got no royalties on the resale of textbooks.
I wonder whether he would approve of our rental system at ASU. Textbooks are adopted for 3 years. Student's "rent" the textbook for a semester and the rental cost is rolled into their general fee. It is much cheaper for the student (since the cost of 1 book may be amortized over up to 6 students) and no used-book marketeers are making excessive profits. On the other hand, the textbook author will get royalties for only the initial purchase.
Ken
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--------------------------------------------------------------- Kenneth M. Steele, Ph.D. [EMAIL PROTECTED] Department of Psychology http://www.psych.appstate.edu Appalachian State University Boone, NC 28608 USA ---------------------------------------------------------------
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