Every semester, I tell myself I'll never be price-gouged by textbooks again. Yet here I am, a second-semester senior, looking down at a bill for more than $400 on my desk. Most aggravating of all was the $20.99 I paid for a used, 132-page paperback, ""Soviet Politics: 1917-1991,"" from Underground Textbook Exchange. I could've bought the same book from the University Bookstore and paid $21.75. I guess saving 76 cents is something. What is to be done about this?
Coming down hard on the bookstores won't help because they are simply charging the publisher's price in order to make a profit. Real progress in finding cheap textbooks will come about when students and professors, not bookstores, take the lead in finding less-expensive alternatives.
Students have a variety of websites to peruse for textbooks. One reliable site is eBay, its only drawbacks being shipping costs and the time delay between purchasing the book and getting it in the mail. Other websites like Craigslist and Starving Scholars eliminate the online middle-man and allow students at a certain school to deal directly with one another via the site.
The problem with these sites is illustrated through my experience with Starving Scholars. I paid $50 at A Room of One's Own for my Folklore 540 books, ""Wisconsin Folklore"" and ""Down Home Dairyland."" After being offered a measly $15 on buyback, I decided to post the books on Starving Scholars for $30. It's good for the buyer, who saves $20 off the cover price, and for the seller, who gets double the bookstore's buyback offer.
The problem? No one made any offers. Students taking Folklore 540 this semester probably just didn't know that Starving Scholars exists.
Clearly the popularity of these sites is still in its infancy, and I suspect students will not migrate en masse to the Internet until one site breaks out from the pack and distinguishes itself as the place to go for cheap textbook sharing. Think of a Google or a YouTube but for textbooks. So far, it looks like Craigslist is the leading contender, but judging from my unscientific survey—putting my Folklore books on there and receiving no offers as well—Craigslist hasn't caught on quite yet.
Professors should also play a role in helping students find cheaper textbooks. They should send e-mails to class lists long before the semester begins informing students of the required reading lists, and they should post reading lists on their personal websites. This way, students have more time to browse leisurely through the Internet for low-priced books instead of scrambling to University Bookstore or Underground the day before classes begin.
Furthermore, it would be convenient to have a direct link on the UW-Madison webpage to professors' personal webpages. That way, instead of wading through a dozen screens to get to a particular page, students can just click on the link and scroll down alphabetically for the professor they need.
In addition, professors should resist the admirable urge to help out local businesses. Maybe these professors are able to spend more money on books to promote social justice, but many students are scrimping and saving just to afford tuition. At the very least, professors should display some URLs of other sources instead of trying to steer students to one particular business.
It goes without saying that capitalism is a cutthroat system. Textbooks are priced outrageously because publishers and stores know most students will pay outrageous prices. The solution to this is for students, with assistance from professors and university administration, to do the legwork and create a forum in which they can buy and sell textbooks at fair prices.
