A Report on the Feasibility of Textbook Rental - IBHE

Source: Government Accountability Office 2005BundlingBundling refers to packaging supplemental materials, such as CD-ROMs, consumableworkbooks, and access codes to online quizzes and resources, with a required textbook. Studentsand college bookstores often do not have the opportunity to purchase the textbook separatelywhen course materials are sold as a bundle, or the separately priced course materials may be costprohibitive. Bundling affects the used textbook market because the practice limits the ability topurchase used course materials and sell back all course materials in the bundled package.According to the National Association of College Stores, there are three primary issuesfor college stores regarding the unbundling of course materials. These include:• whether unbundled options are consistent with faculty adoptions;• the availability of unbundled materials from publishers and pricing of theindividual components; and• the comparative cost of offering materials bundled or unbundled (NACS responseto draft report 2006).CALPIRG, a public interest advocacy group based in California, reports that bundledtextbooks and course materials account for half of all textbook sales. “When a bundled book isavailable for purchase unbundled…the bundled book is on average, 10 percent more expensivethan its unbundled counterpart” (CALPIRG 2005).CALPIRG reports that students did not have the option to purchase unbundled materialsfor 55 percent of bundled textbooks studied in its survey (CALPIRG 2005). An Illinois-17-