Re: Response to Janellyn Kleiner

["Joseph Esposito" <espositoj@gmail.com>]

I am in discussions with a large institution about this very 
matter right now.  If you think your organization, or any other, 
would like to participate in this, please contact me offline 
(espositoj@gmail.com).

Having said this, bear in mind that it is not the publishers who 
force up the prices, but the faculty.  It is faculty that 
requests samples that they don't want, faculty that sells samples 
to used book wholesalers, faculty that demands electronic study 
material to supplement hardcopy texts, faculty that has resisted 
the switch to ebooks, faculty that demands "fresh" copyright 
dates (thereby driving up plant costs), and faculty that adopts 
texts without regard to their prices.  All faculty?  Of course 
not, but when college publishers gather, they talk of their 
frustration with a system whose costs they cannot control.  No 
one wants a calculus text to cost $150.

Joe Esposito

On 7/14/06, Margaret Landesman <margaret.landesman@utah.edu> wrote:
>
> Joe, It's a problem for the students who work in the library and
> report they are not signing up for the course they really want
> and taking another because the textbooks are cheaper.  Our
> students mostly work and take several years to graduate with
> considerable debt by the time they do. (Not to mention spouses
> and children). So, deserving though these giant publishers (and
> their reps on campuses which charge $40k a year) doubtless are,
> I'm for helping making it cheaper if possible.
>
> So if you were a librarian and wanted to get texts to your
> students (via reserve, campus licenses, whatever), and you were
> willing to seek library and/or campus money to do so, and your
> provost had also expressed interest in the problem, where would
> you start?  Who would you talk to and what kind of possibilities
> would you explore?
>
> Margaret Landesman
> Utah