Reaction to Textbook Costs in the US (2006.10.14)

The Wall Street Journal printed an article entitled "Efforts Mount to Cut Costs of Textbooks" on September 28. If you do a Google search on the headline the first link that comes up is from the WSJ. It takes you to a page that tells you the article is restricted to subscribers. No big deal for me, I'm a subscriber, but it might be a problem for others. On the other hand, if you just scroll down a bit on the Google site, you come to a reprint of the article in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. Click on that link and you get the article. Strange.

Anyway, it's a pretty good article about what some states in the US are doing to reduce the high cost of textbooks. For example, quoting from a sidebar in the article:

• "A new Virginia law addresses the bundling of textbooks with other materials
• Washington State requires bookstores to inform faculty of the costs and frequency of revisions
• Illinois is reviewing the feasibility of textbook-rental programs"

There's lots more. And thinking about business models.............

Don