A Report on the Feasibility of Textbook Rental - IBHE

From:Lee BlankenshipVP/CEOVillage Commons Bookstore901 Lucinda Ave.DeKalb, IL 60115Board Member: Illinois Retail Merchants AssociationLeadership Council: National Federation of Independent BusinessFormer Chairman: Private Stores Committee of the National Association of College StoresPhone: 815-758-0613Fax: 815-758-5578E-Mail: books@vcbs.comWeb: www.vcbs.comVillage Commons Bookstore is a privately owned bookstore serving Northern Illinois University since1970. I have been in the college book store business for over 38 years. I started as a student worker forKennedy Book Store at the University of Kentucky in 1968. I worked for Kennedy’s as their textbookmanager until 1983. I then ran Southern Illinois Book and Supply, serving Southern Illinois University,and John A Logan College Book Store, until 1997. In 1997 I became the managing partner in VillageCommons Bookstore. I am still serving in that capacity.It is my firm belief that the rental of textbooks is not the solution to the problem of rising costs oftextbooks. I believe that rental would be too expensive for the state to implement and to support. Ibelieve that instructors would not have the academic freedom to design their courses in the best interestsof the students. Rental would put businesses like mine out of business with a loss of jobs (mainlystudents) and a loss of sales tax revenue.It is my belief that publishing companies are the largest problem with the rising costs of textbooks.Publishers are using custom publishing and bundling of other materials with the primary textbook to forcethe sell of NEW books and to limit the buyback of books from the students. Let me give one example ofhow a publisher tried to force the sell of new books on the campus of Northern Illinois University.Every freshman english student at Northern Illinois University is required to buy an english handbook. Inthe fall semester of 2004, the English Department adopted a book by Raimes, titled: Keys for Writers,published by Hlughton Mifflin. I will give a four year history of this adoption.Fall 2004: ISBN 0-618-43785-1 Raimes: Keys for Writers (This book was bundled with a CD and otherthings that the students did not use) This book was bundled to sell only new books.Spring 2005: We bought the textbook back by itself and sold to the students without a problem.Fall 2005: ISBN 0-618-68076-4 Raimes: Keys for Writers-Special Edition for Northern Illinois University(This book had added about 16 pages of information about NIU that could be obtained from othersources. The textbook was exactly the same.) We sold both books without any problems.Spring 2006: We bought both of the books back from students and sold them without any problems.Fall 2006: ISBN 0-618-81474-4 Raimes: Keys for Writers-2006-2007 Edition for Northern IllinoisUniverstiy (This was the same basic textbook with the 16 pages of NIU information included with theinclusion of Essay winners and Essays from 2006.) We sold all three books without any problems.-104-