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Making Textbooks Affordable

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6 Textbooks Tips for Students:

1. Buy online.
   Research shows you can save an average $245 per semester that way.


2. Rent paper textbooks from Chegg.com, BookRenter.com or CampusBookRentals.com.
   You’ll pay less up front for new books if you rent, but remember, you won’t be able to sell your books back to the store at the end of the year. Check out a recent New York Times article about online book rentals.


3. Consider subscribing to online or downloadable eTexbooks.
   Coursesmart.com has 7,000+ textbooks available and an iPhone app. Again, you’ll pay less up front for new books but you won’t be able to sell them back to the bookstore at the end of the year.


4. Try student-to-student sites like Campus Book Swap.
   Using a book swap, you can get more for the used books you sell and pay less for the used books you buy.


5. Check the library.
   Your professors may have books on reserve. CUNY recently set aside an extra $2 million to college libraries to make more textbooks available by direct loan.


6. Ask professors if it’s OK to use older editions of their assigned text.
   There may be very few differences from one edition to the next.

Download our textbooks fact sheet.

Recent Textbooks Laws

The State Legislature and Congress recently enacted laws aimed at bringing book prices under control. The state Textbooks Access Act, which went into effect on July 1, 2009, requires publishers to disclose book prices to faculty, and gives faculty the right to order unbundled books. It also requires colleges to encourage early textbook adoption so that bookstores can tap into the wholesale used textbook market earlier, and more copies of cheaper used books can be made available to students.

The federal Higher Education Act, which goes into affect in 2010, goes further than the state law. It requires that CD ROMs, workbooks, and other “extras” be sold separately, so that students aren't forced to buy bundled items that aren’t actually required by their professors. To help faculty make fully informed choices, the Act also requires full disclosure, not just of book prices but also of differences between subsequent editions, and of the existence of alternative, cheaper formats. Beyond that, it also requires colleges to post International Standard Book Numbers (ISBNs) of assigned texts in printed and online course schedules “to the maximum extent practicable.”

How Faculty and Administrators Can Help

Encourage early book adoption. Early book adoption is the best way that faculty members can help students save money on textbooks because it allows the bookstore to obtain more used copies from the wholesale market and from students themselves during the on-campus buyback. When faculty get their textbook orders in early it also makes it easier for the college to post textbook ISBNs early, so students have more time to comparison shop for books.

Develop voluntary price-sensitive book purchasing guidelines. Such guidelines would include affordability as a criterion, encourage faculty to use the same editions for as long as pedagogically appropriate, and specify that bundled (or “integrated”) books should be ordered only when faculty plan on using the extra materials. They might also ask faculty to consider using open source online books, when appropriate.