From: "Hoon, Peggy" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tue, 13 May 2014 13:09:32 +0000

Seriously?

The choice before was - NOT to buy the book.  Even the feds have
recognized that "college textbook prices have risen at twice the rate
of annual inflation over the last two decades and that new textbook
prices increased 82 percent over the last decade.² [from the LOW COST
act of 2014).

Studies have, for years, shown that students are opting not to buy the
brand new required text - but these models prevent such an opt-out.
See "7 in 10 Students Have Skipped Buying a Textbook Because of Its
Cost, Survey Finds By Molly Redden

For many students and their families, scraping together the money to
pay for college is a big enough hurdle on its own. But a new survey
has found that, once on a campus, many students are unwilling or
unable to come up with more money to buy books - one of the very
things that helps turn tuition dollars into academic success.

In the survey, <http://www.studentpirgs.org/uploads/78/e7/78e7088fe09aae620c6db5a3329b37ab
/2011-textbook-survey.pdf> released on Tuesday by the U.S. Public
Interest Research Group, a nonprofit consumer-advocacy organization,
seven in 10 college students said they had not purchased a textbook at
least once because they had found the price too high. Many more
respondents said they had purchased a book whose price was driven up
by common
textbook-publishing practices, such as frequent new editions or
bundling with other products.² at
http://chronicle.com/article/7-in-10-Students-Have-Skipped/128785/

You are correct that the faculty need some education; additionally,
their administrations need to become aware of this practice as it is,
in practical effect, a back-door mandatory student fee that improperly
jumps over university policy and procedures required when imposing any
new mandatory new student fee or increase in tuition.

Regards,

Peggy

--
Peggy E. Hoon, J.D.

Scholarly Communications Librarian
J. Murrey Atkins Library
University of North Carolina at Charlotte

phone: 704-687-5540
fax: 704-687-3050
[log in to unmask]



On 5/12/14, 6:13 PM, "LIBLICENSE" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>From: Sandy Thatcher <[log in to unmask]>
>Date: Sun, 11 May 2014 10:06:26 -0500
>
>Calling this model "coercion" is a misnomer.  Students may have no
>choice in the matter, but when did they ever have a choice?  What
>makes the textbook industry unique is that the publishers do not sell
>to the end users but to intermediaries, i.e., professors, and these
>intermediaries have as much freedom as any other buyer to turn down an
>offer.  This does not amount to "an offer they can't refuse." So,
>blaming the publishers for being creative about the ways they offer
>their products seems misdirected.  If anyone is to blame here, it is
>the professors who succumb to the temptations the publishers offer
>them.  No one is holding a gun to their heads.  This might be coercion
>if the professors were receiving kickbacks from the publishers, but
>Chuck has offered no proof of such skullduggery.
>
>Sandy Thatcher
>
>
>> From: "Hamaker, Charles" <[log in to unmask]>
>> Date: Sat, 10 May 2014 11:58:28 +0000
>>
>> Publishers have something new under the sun. The major textbook
>> providers have created websites to "enhance" their educational
>> textbook offerings. The only fly in the ointment is that along with
>> the publisher's website ,student purchase of website access
>> accompanying the text is not optional but mandatory, much like a lab
>> fee.
>>
>> If the student doesn't access the website homework assignments, she
>> can't pass the course or in many cases, take the tests.
>>
>> For most  classes a defined percentage of the final grade is
>> determined by  website participation. Sometimes the course is marked
>> as "hybrid" at the bookstore or on the course description. Sometimes
>> not. Some classes are now noting such content is 50% of the course,
>> and may  reduce classroom contact hours because of the website
>> experience.
>>
>> Students are  being told if you don't have  website access (usually
>> registration rights that come with an "access card)" then you can't
>> pass the course. Publishers can provide deep discounts if the purchase
>> of textbook and/or website access are "mandatory" i.e. guaranteed.
>>
>> The University of Minnesota bookstore instituted a program that
>> simply billed  a student if they signed up for a course using McGraw
>> Hill content that has such enhanced content. No choice.
>>
>> For my take on this you might want to see my editorial in Online
>> Searcher magazine
>>
>>http://www.infotoday.com/OnlineSearcher/Articles/Searchers-Voice/Coercion
>>-96759.shtml
>>
>> Librarians with expertise in negotiating with publishers for econtent
>> and licenses (there is normally for both faculty and students, a EULA
>> required to sign on) need to be in the discussions on every college
>> campus surrounding such arrangements.
>>
>> Content created by both faculty and students on the website usually
>> becomes the publisher's property to do with as they see fit.
>>
>> Chuck