New bill could force stores to reduce costs of textbooks

NEW YORK – Members of Congress have proposed a bill that will help ease the burden of buying college textbooks. \nThe Textbook Affordability Act of 2007, sponsored by Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., was introduced March 20 and has yet to be approved by the Senate or House of Representatives, according to the text of the act. The act’s major aim is to ensure that textbooks and supplemental materials are more affordable and accessible for students. The act suggests that the publishers include the ISBN number and the actual retail price of a book on a student’s online schedule. \nSome of the points proposed by the act have already been adopted by the New York University Bookstore, however. \n“We have always made the ISBN numbers and retail prices available on our Web site so that students can shop around,” said Phil \nChristopher, director of NYU Bookstores. Christopher said the bookstore Web site is a great tool for finding the cheapest alternatives for buying textbooks. The bookstore also promotes the buyback program in which students can sell their used textbooks to the bookstore. \n“This robust used book program is a great way to lower the cost of textbooks overall, but it depends on the participation of students and faculty as well,” Christopher said. “We’re trying to make the faculty realize that the earlier we get their textbook requests, the more buyback opportunities we will have.” \nChristopher said he believes if this is promoted to a greater extent, textbook prices will decrease. \nThe act also calls for publishers to include the history of any revisions of the books they are selling, and whether such items are available in cheaper paperback or unbound formats. The bookstore would then purchase these items to sell to students at a lower cost. \nThe act states that if a publisher sells supplemental books along with textbooks in a bundle, they must also give buyers the option of buying them separately. \n“I think that it’s a good idea to separately sell the textbooks,” said NYU freshman Monique East. “For one of my classes, I was required to buy an expensive textbook bundle that my teacher has yet to \neven use.” \nFor some students, textbook prices are so high they are unable to buy them at all. NYU senior Jonathan Reid said books at NYU are so expensive he couldn’t afford textbooks for certain classes in the past. This semester, he has not bought books for either of his two courses. \n“College students are already broke,” he said, “and pricey textbooks only make things worse.”