For a college student anxiously awaiting winter break, there is nothing more frustrating than standing in a two-hour line in the bookstore to receive a $5 reimbursement on a textbook that cost hundreds.
Yet technology may provide a cheaper, more convenient solution. Several Web sites are now making thousands of textbooks and literary classics available online.
Companies such as iChapters, Freeload Press and BooksOnBoard are making books more accessible during these tough economic times. Their Web sites offer various options for acquiring course material. Some simply provide free text, while others charge for downloadable and printable versions.
Despite the fees that some Web sites such as iChapters.com charge, the prices offered are still a drastic reduction from the prices on bookstore shelves. Free or not, these companies are saving students thousands.
‘It’s frustrating when you get no money back [from the bookstore] and they ask if you want to donate the book you spent so much money on,’ said Sarah Turner ’10. ‘Teachers will use a new version of the same book just because a page or two change, and students end up losing out because of it. Electronic books seem like a good solution.’
An About.com blogpost explains: ‘As more professors decide to publish their textbooks for free, students will get to choose between the electronic and the paper version of the required texts. Hopefully, traditional publishers will see the increased interest in free books and will lower their prices to be competitive.’
This option could not come to students at a better time. According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, college textbook prices have increased at twice the rate of inflation during the past two decades, increasing at an average of 6 percent per year.
The Fairfield University Web site estimates that students will spend $900 per year on books and supplies. Over four years, that’s up to $3,600 that could be saved by using electronic books.
‘I definitely think that it would be a great way to save money,’ said Turrner. ‘I would use the printable versions so I could have something in front of me to highlight and take to class.’
Saving students money is the primary goal of many of these companies. For example, Freeload Press strives to ‘[liberate] textbooks and study aids for students from all financial backgrounds.’
As tuition prices increase, any lessening of college expenses comes as a relief.
CDs have given way to MP3s. Print journalism struggles as online news becomes more popular than ever. Perhaps in our technological age, expensive, printed textbooks are a dying breed.
‘I would rather pay a small fee to print parts of a book than pay hundreds of dollars [for the whole thing],’ said Kait Chase ’10. ‘Teachers should give the option of buying books online if they’re going to change the edition or not use much of the book at all.’
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