Sometimes the Web is fabulous. Textbooks cost a fortune so any way to save money on them is wonderful, yes? I’ve seen a few websites that help students do this. This one has the catchiest title, and seems really good: check out Textbook Revolt. It’s like a textbook coop. You list text books you have used and can give away to other students, and you list textbooks you need to get in return. No cost to join the website service, and no cost for the books you receive. You just have to give books to others as well.
There is another site called Campus Books. You can apparently save money buying them from this site. I imagine it’s hard to get every book you need on the ‘Revolt’ site, since it depends on whether someone is giving it away. According to this Market Watch report on Campus Books, you can save as much as 49% of the textbook cost.
Then there is possibly another option. There is a real push in academia towards the Open Textbook concept. This means textbooks are online and useable by any instructor or student. This is I think free as well. You can read about the Open Textbook movement here in USA Today. The article features a Texas oceanography professor using the open textbook system. Are any of our local college professors using this system? If not, and you are a student, you may as well learn what lobbying is all about and see if you can convince your profs to do this. Especially in subjects like Oceanography or Law or any medical field where the books are very expensive.
Saving money is a beautiful thing, as Martha Stewart might say :-) Peace Out 3C
2 responses so far ↓
1 collegegal // Sep 29, 2008 at 3:59 pm
thanks!
2 Carole Cohen // Sep 29, 2008 at 6:41 pm
Your welcome, hope you save some cash!
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