A Report on the Feasibility of Textbook Rental - IBHE

instructor’s own writing or work; or 3) honoraria for academic peer review of coursematerials.”• Bullet 4 – “Require textbooks to be sold separately…” — Publishers that sell packaged materials,already offer their textbooks and supplementary course materials for sale separately. The benefitof the package is that, collectively, the materials cost less that when sold separately. Manybookstores dislike the cost of handling numerous items and the requirement for additional shelfspace, and faculty object when students do not select the full range of materials the faculty hasordered, because the faculty believe all of the materials are necessary for their students successfulcompletion of their class.• Bullet 5 – “publishers to provide…price of course materials sold at the bookstores” – Publisherscannot meet this requirement. Only bookstores can provide retail prices. Publishers sell theirproducts to bookstores at wholesale. Bookstores markup these products at their own discretion –frequently based on agreements with the college or university where they are located – and set theretail prices paid by students.Administration• Bullet 4 – “set…textbook author profit caps” – The level of remuneration of authors contractedwith by publishers cannot be set by a Committee. Only if a Committee were directly employingthe author to write a work would this be appropriate. Also, there has been significant debateabout the inherent risks of setting up numerous Committees to set policies. The chief concernsexpressed are that any one of these Committees, without careful administrative and legalguidance, will establish policies or practices that are beyond their purview, infringe on academicfreedom or are illegal and subject to litigation.Faculty• Bullet 2 – “Place course materials on reserve” – Academic departments in other states have raisedstrong objection to this requirement due to the cost of purchasing the materials and the cost anddifficulties of administering the program.• Bullet 3 – “Adopt new editions only when significant changes occur.” – This requirement raisesthe questions of what is significant and to whom? A detailed description of the changes made innew editions is printed in the foreword of the textbook being offered. This is an almost universalpractice employed by publishers as part of their marketing regimen. If the faculty or departmentmaking the adoption does not believe the changes are sufficient to warrant a change they can stickwith the old edition – a common practice that is overlooked by some critics – or choose anothertext from another publisher. Some departments require their instructors to choose new editions toforce the faculty to remain current and consistently update their classroom lectures. The vastmajority of faculty prefer the newest editions because of content and improvements in pedagogy,according to a national study of faculty by Zogby International.Publishers• Bullet 1 – “Provide complimentary copies of selected textbooks…” – Publishers at their owndiscretion, already distribute millions of copies of complimentary copies of textbooks and othercourse materials. However, as noted earlier, this requirement can neither be required nor impliedas a condition of doing business.• Bullet 2 – “Offer bundled materials as separate items for purchase.” – Publishers generally offersupplemental materials separately if they are ordered in this fashion by the faculty or adepartment and also supply materials separately for sale with used textbooks. In some instancespublishers have third-party contractual agreements, for items such as software, that prohibit thispractice. It is important to note that 1) materials sold separately are generally cost more than-74-