The average student will spend $900 a year for textbooks, according to the State Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs) Web site. At universities across the country a new way of curbing the cost has been instituted that is saving students hundreds of dollars a year on books.
"Here at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse the students pay just under $75 per semester to rent all of the textbooks that they need for the semester," said Cory Miller, director of the university's rental program in an e-mail.
Textbook rental programs are in place at about 20 universities and colleges across the United States. Schools such as Southeastern Louisiana State, the University of California at Berkeley, and seven University of Wisconsin campuses have implemented successful textbook rental programs.
Students renting textbooks could save an average of $400 a year on textbooks, according to fees listed on these universities bookstores' Web sites.
The California PIRG published "Affordable Textbooks for the 21st Century: A Guide to Establishing Textbook Rental Services" in July 2005. The study promotes the implementation of textbook rental programs and highlights a 12-step program that universities can use as a guide to instituting textbook rental programs.
The program is not rigid. Rental programs are designed to suit each individual institution. A rental program can be run from an existing retail space on campus. The programs can be funded by course-based fees, credit hour-based fees or per-book charges. The students often have an option to buy the book, to add to their personal library, at a reduced cost.
Recently, the publishing industry has been under fire for their practices in driving up the cost of textbooks. Publishers are flooding the market with new editions of books that contain marginal changes in content or cosmetic changes only. This makes it impossible for students to purchase used books for a course and limits the selling back of books once the course is over.
Another way publishers drive up the cost is by selling "bundled" materials. A textbook might only be available "bundled" with a workbook or CD-ROM. Often these additional materials are never used in the course. Textbook rental programs inhibit the publishers' ability to continue with these costly practices.
The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse's rental program is a successful case study in textbook rental programs.
"We are self-sustaining. Our operating budget is generated from the fees the students pay, the sale of textbooks to used book companies and on half.com, and from the fines that students pay. We do not receive funding from the state," Miller said in an e-mail. "The program runs very smoothly. We have developed a pretty good working relationship with the departments and most instructors."
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