News today about a recent report from the Public Interest Research Group slamming the sharp inflation of textbook prices.
“Student spending for books and supplies has risen from a national average of $619 in the 1999-2000 school year to $807 in 2002-2003, according to the National Association of College Stores.”
[More information on this phenomenon.]
Students and now even instructors agree that prices have gone the way of journal costs.
University libraries certainly don’t have the budgets to obtain textbooks, but campus bookstores often aren’t the cheapest place to buy titles either.
The PIRG study recommends electronic formats as a better way to keep with with edition updates. A call for an Open Source Library Science Textbook was covered earlier.
Textbooks
This article about the report made the front page of the Indiana University (Bloomington) student newspaper.