Textbook Rentals

One of the proposed solutions suggested to address the textbook affordability issue. Various states, including Illinois have evaluated the feasibility of establishing textbook rental programs as a way to help students better afford higher education. Many of the UW System colleges and comprehensive universities, including UW Eau Claire have textbook rental programs. Studies, like the one done by the Illinois Board of Higher Education, have focused on universities providing textbook rentals. This upcoming academic year will see publishers getting into the act. A recent New York Times article reports on this new development. Maybe this provides an answer to publishers who view the used textbook market as a threat to their business and students who see that market as their best source for recooping their textbook costs.

Technician - Textbooks available on reserve

The other day I learned that the D.H. Hill library at North Carolina State University is collaborating with their campus bookstore to provide one copy of every required course textbook through their reserve desk.Technician - Textbooks available on reserve

This is an impressive attempt by an academic library to address student's needs for relief from the continual rise in the cost of textbooks.

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Textbook Affordability

Today I received my University of Denver alumni magazine and learned that a professor there is trying to address the high cost of textbooks through electronic texts. The magazine reprinted an article from October, 2008 about Daniels College of Business professor Don McCubbrey's work to solve the textbook affordability problem facing his students. He worked with his graduate students to develop an electronic book that would be affordable. But Professor McCubbrey was thinking about the cost of textbooks in a more global manner. If textbooks are too expensive for students in the United States, what does that mean for education in less developed areas. Working with Richard Watson of the University of Georgia, Professor McCubbrey founded of the Global Text Project. The Global Text Project's goal is to marshall the resources of the United States to bring 1,000 electronic textbooks to students in the developing world and help education around the world.