Tips To obTain Textbooks

This is the first draft of a document of suggestions to the following groups of people involved in the process of textbook purchase, selection, distribution, oversight and publication

Students       Faculty/Departments        Administrations/Bookstores            MHEC            Publishers 

Students  
1.  Order books on-line.   Some American publishers sell the same books overseas for a much lower price.
2.  Share the cost of books with other students.  (Group buying) Buy the book together, schedule the use times, agree on disposition when the course is over.
3.  Buy used books.  
4.  Sell used books directly to other students.   Selling the used book directly to another student removes the middle man.
5.  Buy access to on-line versions of the text.  There are several aspects to consider: On the up-side, the price is usually much lower than a hard copy. On the down-side there is no resale when the course is over and the inconvenience of all study on-line is considerable.
   
Faculty/Departments  
1.  Bundle only essential material.    Publishers should not provide "extras" if they are not wanted, in part, due to the fact that after an introductory time, their price increases. Also, they may not be assigned for use by students. This means the practice of bundling should be stopped, making it mandatory for students to purchase individual items at will.
2.  Negotiate price with the publisher before adoption. Publishers should provide the cost of the textbooks and supplements to colleges and instructors so they can factor this information into their decisions.
3.  Skip a new edition cycle. As instructors, we should make an effort to avoid continually switching titles or adopting new editions without good reason, so students can trade or buy used books.
4.  Order and recommend only the books that will be used. 

Distinguish between required and optional materials

 As instructors, we should not require textbooks or supplements if we are not going to use them in class.
5.  Consider open source textbooks. More and more of these open source textbooks are becoming available on the web and in hard copy.
6.  Faculty, as authors, can negotiate with publishers for longer edition cycles.  
Administrations/Bookstores  
1.  Require the price of the textbook as part of the textbook adoption process. Faculty members adopting textbooks need to factor in the price of textbooks into the decisions.                                                                                                                         
2.  Publicize to Faculty the mark-up rate of textbooks. Bookstores should let instructors and departments know the mark up rate of items, so that instructors can factor profit ratio into their decision.
3.  Cooperate with Faculty in skipping a new edition cycle. Bookstores could stockpile the textbook that was being continued instead of the next edition.
4.  Publicize the options above to save on the costs of textbooks. Administrations should inform students that they might be able to purchase their textbooks more cheaply than at the college bookstore. 
   
MHEC  
1.  Hold fast to the principle that faculty are responsible for choosing textbooks. Instructors and departments should continue to have the academic freedom and professional responsibility for choosing instructional materials.                                                                                                               
2.  Consider a buying service from Maryland colleges. Can Maryland colleges participate in a buying service similar to the one used by the Maryland college library systems? Would this be possible without standardizing text selection for common courses, as this would impinge on academic freedom and instructors' personal responsibility for deciding what and how to teach?
   
Publishers