Instructors can reduce book costs, prof says

PUBLISHED by The Daily Free Press

Although buying and reselling used textbooks at the campus bookstore is convenient for most students, it's not always possible to deal in used books for some courses that require the newest editions of their texts.


New editions, customized textbooks and supplemental materials are all price-increasing options for professors when it comes time to assign books each semester, Boston University College of Arts and Sciences Anthropology professor Thomas Barfield said.

"There's more than meets the eye [in regards to the textbook industry]," he said. "And students have a right to see it."

Barfield said he requires students to have new editions of textbooks only if the bookstore is short on the old edition, but publishers put out new editions when the old one stops making money, regardless of whether there is updated information in it.
"It's a toss-up to say whether it is an improvement or not," he said. "Textbooks are a big money-maker."

He said the book he required for his Anthropology 101 class last semester, Cultural Anthropology: The Human Challenge was half-priced because copies were left over from the year before. Professors should look for similar deals and choose supplemental material carefully to keep prices low, he said.

"[Publishers] will try to sell you a CD-ROM [and other features], and you can usually get it cheaper if you don't want those," Barfield said. "It's important for an instructor to see what can be stripped off or what should be kept."

College of Communication freshman Peisin Yang said she bought Cultural Anthropology last semester, but the Barnes & Noble at BU would not buy it back from her because Barfield did not assign it this semester.

"They told me it was customized for BU," she said. "I was definitely smarter about buying my books this semester. I checked Amazon and other places . . . because obviously I don't want to spend more money if I know I can't get any of it back."

Barnes & Noble does not buy back customized textbooks that cannot be used in future semesters, Barnes & Noble College Booksellers Vice President Jade Roth said.

"A textbook customized to a particular school doesn't have any value nationally," she said.

Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences nutrition professor Joan Salge-Blake said updating the textbook she authored, Nutrition and You, is essential for Nutrition 201.

"Nutrition is a moving target, so you have to update it," she said.

Finding the latest and most helpful information is the professor's most important job, said Bruce Hildebrand, executive director for higher education at the Association of American Publishers.

"You want [faculty] riding on the cutting edge," he said. "Faculty may look at 100 different textbooks and 400 to 500 supplemental materials."

Hildebrand said professors should chose editions and supplemental materials according to what information is most beneficial to the students. If a professor wants to, they can usually always stay with an old edition, he said.

"If the faculty doesn't think the changes are adequate, they won't order it," he said.