All Posts Tagged With: "textbooks"

UAlberta chooses not to renew Access Copyright license

The University of Alberta is the latest institution to oppose a new fee structure for licensing copyrighted works proposed by Access Copyright, the collective that licenses copying and course packs for most campuses in Canada.

The new fee structure would charge universities $45 per full time student, versus the $3.38 per student, universities currently pay. Approval of the new fee structure is pending a decision by the Copyright Board of Canada which is currently reviewing Access Copyright’s proposal.

The U of A has decided not to renew its agreement with the copyright licensing agency, which is set to lapse December 31. As a result, U of A students will no longer be able to take out and copy required textbooks for a course if it is on reserve at a U of A library. Although student union leaders at the U of A oppose the new fee structure, they say this will create a huge obstacle for students who rely on the library to save money on textbooks.

Even though the new fee is still awaiting approval, it is not surprising that the university is not waiting for an official decision before cutting ties with Access Copyright, considering the proposed fee increase stood to cost the university an extra $1 million annually. “I don’t buy things without knowing what I’m buying,” U of A provost and vice president (academic) Carl Amrhein told the Gateway.

In a press release, Amrhein explained that the decision to allow the agreement to lapse was not just an issue of cost, but also with the terms of the proposed license. “Access Copyright offered to extend the current agreement only if universities agreed to be retroactively bound by a future Copyright Board decision on not only the tariffs but also on proposed new license conditions. This is unacceptable,” Amrhein said.

The new license conditions may include the licensing of materials linked to on the Internet, additional protection for digital locks, no exclusion for fair dealing, and more extensive reporting requirements. “We are genuinely concerned about some of the potential restrictions in the proposed license that may threaten our ability to use copyrighted resources in the classroom and may impinge other existing laws, practices or rights.”

The agreement with Access Copyright allowed the university to keep reserve materials on library shelves. Once the agreement lapses, however, the university will be subject to a ruling under copyright legislation that disallows this practice. Armhein explained that the  ruling states that by putting materials on reserve shelves, universities are aiding and abetting students who would take them out and photocopy them.

While authors do deserve fair compensation for their work, it’s unreasonable for Access Copyright to expect universities to pay approximately 10 times more than they were originally paying to stay with the licensing agency, and at a time when many feel such fees should be decreasing.

Many post secondary institutions have heavily criticized the proposal for its take on fundamental copyright issues and for its demands for a high rise in fees. The University of British Columbia recently chose to challenge the tariff by working towards establishing its own license database to track the rights to various works for professors and students.

Access copyright has argued that it is asking the Copyright Board to set the tariff to ensure that authors and publishers are fairly compensated for use of their works. The agency stated on its website that the proposed fee increases have been “grossly exaggerated by critics,” arguing that the new tariff represents a tiny fraction of most universities’ budgets, and that it was up to universities and colleges to decide whether or not to absorb the additional costs or pass them on to students.

“Some academics say there should be no payment at all; however professors do not work for free, and their unions are silent when pay increases they demand get passed on to students,” the agency argued.

However, law professor and Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-Commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, Michael Geist, has said he believes that the post secondary institutions have every right to be critical of the proposed new fee structure and licensing conditions. He pointed out that teachers and students typically rely on several alternative methods for finding course materials, which don’t involve using the license.

“For example, the Canadian Research Knowledge Network has purchased licensed access to thousands of journals for 650,000 university researchers and students. In light of that access, course-packs are being replaced by database-generated course reading lists,” Geist wrote in the Ottawa Citizen.

“Given the myriad ways teachers and students access materials that fall outside the Access Copyright license, the education community can be forgiven for asking why the collective is demanding millions more in compensation.”

Geist argued that universities should seriously consider using individually licensed works and distance themselves from the agency. He explained that individual negotiations are a “win-win” option for students, authors and teachers, because they have the potential to save money for students and ensure that authors are fully compensated for use of their works.

If the decision to stay with Access Copyright is one that is based on convenience, perhaps institutions should start to take Geist’s advice and move towards individual licensing. The new Access Copyright licensing conditions are likely to be just as cumbersome for universities and colleges, and not beneficial for students or instructors.

Loose-leaf is the way to go

Back in first year, I remember being shocked at how expensive university textbooks are. It seemed ridiculous to be paying hundreds of dollars for books that would be getting less than four months of use. And that I wouldn’t necessarily even enjoy reading.

In high school, textbooks are just something that your teacher uses to assign homework. It’s different in university. You spend hours with your textbooks every week, keeping up with readings, doing practice questions, finding quotes for an essay, or studying for an exam. They belong to you, and only you. You’ve known each other since the beginning, back when they were still covered in plastic wrap. It’s a special moment when you peel the plastic off and open a brand new textbook for the first time.

But it’s not a worth-hundreds-of-dollars kind of moment.

Buying textbooks second-hand is one common way to save money. Another solution: buying loose-leaf editions of textbooks. By sacrificing the spine and hard cover, I saved more than $70 on a loose-leaf edition of my biochemistry textbook this semester.

Buying a loose-leaf edition solves another textbook problem: instead of lugging around a 20-pound brick, I can remove all the pages I’m not using at the moment.

-photo courtesy of katerha

Textbook rentals have stormed onto Canadian campuses, but not without some opposition

Shocked by the nearly $1,000 you dropped on textbooks this fall? Maybe it’s time to rent. Big business at American universities, textbook rentals have stormed onto Canadian campuses, but not without a little opposition. While the idea may prove popular with some students, a limited number of titles available for rent could see the program unavailable to many others. As for publishers, many are squirming from what they say could be an administrative nightmare that will eat into their finances.

Six university and college book stores, run by Follett of Canada, are participating in a pilot textbook rental program, called Rent-a-Text. They include stores at Carleton University, the University of Winnipeg, Humber College’s Main and Lakeshore campuses, and St. Clair College campuses in Windsor and Thames. Michael Clark, who runs the U of W bookstore says students who decide to rent can expect to save at least 50 per cent per title. With about a quarter of the store’s titles being eligible for rent, he estimates that could translate into $200 or $300 in savings for the average student. “I think once it catches on, it’s really going to catch on,” he said. Students will typically rents books on a per semester basis.

Stores say they are choosing books for rent that are popular and that have put out recent editions, to ensure they will be used for several semesters. “We’re hoping the professor will use it for three years,” Ed Kane, Carleton’s assistant vice-president (university services) explained. Even if professors won’t commit to a rental title, or change their minds, Follet will be able to rent the book at one of its other stores.

The company, which runs 35 stores in Canada, piloted the program at seven American campuses last fall and has since extended that to more than 750. According to numbers released by the company yesterday, Follet stores have rented more than one million books over the past three weeks, a savings to students of $45 million the company claims.

The market for rented textbooks has been steadily growing in the U.S. since at least 2001 when Chegg.com, a book renting website modeled off of Netflix, launched. Bricks and mortar retailers are only now starting to catch up with their online counterparts.

The National Association of College Stores (NACS) estimated that only 200-300 of its members were renting books last September. They now peg that number at more than 1,500 American campus stores. Barnes and Noble, which operates 636 campus bookstores, also piloted a rental program, beginning with three stores last September, and expanding to 25 by this past winter.

However, renting textbooks is still relatively rare, even in the United States. A May survey of 500 students by the NACS, found that only 12 per cent had rented textbooks, though about 44 per cent said they would consider it. Another 36 per cent were unsure, and 20 per cent said they would not choose to rent. Of those who rented, 72 per cent said they would rent again.

Although textbook renting is new to Canada, Carleton and the U of W won’t be the first universities to enter the market. Last fall the University of Manitoba Students’ Union started a book rental program, and is continuing it this year. Although the UMSU plan is on a much smaller scale—renting only three titles—union president Heather Laube says it is still saving students thousands of dollars. “We had a high success rate last year with very positive feedback and a smooth return process overall,” she said.

In the spring, the University of Toronto Bookstore put six books up for rent, and has now expanded that to more than 100 titles. When the program was first launched, the bookstore rented one book for every four sold. The non-profit bookstore will be renting textbooks for a little more than Follet stores, at around 60 per cent of the retail price.

Campus bookstores will also be facing competition from book renting websites geared towards the Canadian market. Brad Dolan, who graduated with a business degree from Carleton in 2008, started an online rental company called BookMob. Dolan says students will save between 50 and 80 per cent off the retail price.

BookMob boasts being “the first service of its kind,” but another website, textbookrental.ca, also launched this summer. Michael Stock, who completed his business degree at York University in the spring, started the company with the help of Toronto accountant Gershon Hurwitz, to capitalize on the budding textbook rental market. “We identified that no one was doing it in Canada,” Hurwitz said.

While renting may prove to be a boon for retailers, who can rent the same title over and over, some publishers are concerned that rental schemes could hurt their finances, if they are not compensated. Paul Cercone, executive director of McGill-Queen’s University press, told industry magazine, Quill and Quire in June that he is worried about author royalties. “I would want to know exactly what they have in mind to see if it’s advantageous for me,” he said.

Colleen O’Neill, of the Canadian Publishers Council, told the magazine that rental programs have been an “administrative nightmare” for publishers down south.

Follet didn’t consult with publishers prior to offering books for rent and does not pay additional royalties. “Rent-A-Text is driven by our own inventory of both new and used books. We purchase new from publishers,” Elio Distaola, Follet’s director of campus relations, stated via email.

However, profit sharing and royalties agreements, to compensate publishers when a textbook is rented, are not uncommon. Cengage Learning pays publishers a royalty for every time a book is rented, and McGraw Hill supplies Chegg with a limited number of titles for rent in exchange for a portion of revenues.

Despite potential savings to students, renting will not always be the optimal option. An internal U of T survey did reveal that 66 per cent of students were interested in renting textbooks, but 81 per cent indicated they would be interested in buying second hand. Owning a book is often desirable because it can be used for future reference. In other cases, a book may be required for multiple terms rendering the renting option uneconomical.

There is also some dispute about exactly how revolutionary the idea is. Students have always been able to sell their used books back to bookstores, in what amounts to a “quasi-rental” exchange. One bookstore manager pointed out to the Chronicle of Higher Education that if a book has a retail price of $100, a student may be able to rent it for $40, or buy it used for $75. The buy back option may see $50 returned to the student. Although, there are usually only a limited number of books that stores will buy used.

Because only a fifth to a quarter of textbooks may be available for rent from any given store, not all students may even have the option. Zach Janzen, a second-year environmental studies student at the University of Winnipeg, was hoping to rent three books this year. “But it ended up that none of them were for rent,” he said. Instead he purchased two books second hand, one for $80 and the other for $90. Another he purchased brand new for $150. A fourth book Janzen wanted was available for rent, but it cost only around $20 to buy, so he bought it.

Distaola admits that renting will never fully supplant the market for new and used books, nor is it intended to. “It’s about creating options for students.”

Related: Why textbooks are so expensive

How to download your textbooks for free

UToronto bookstore launches textbook rental pilot project

I remember ordering my textbooks for the first time, way back in first year. It seemed like such a novelty, peeling the plastic wrap off a bunch of brand-new books.

Unlike high school textbooks, there weren’t any ripped pages, scribbled notes or suspicious stains. The covers weren’t handled by eighteen generation’s worth of fingies. Nobody had breathed on the pages with their unbrushed teeth (germaphobes think about these kinds of things).

They were mine. Mine.

Hundreds of dollars and a semester later, the novelty had vanished. The problem is, the life span of most textbooks is a single semester. When you’re done with the course, you’re done with the book. Heck, I felt like I was getting away with something when I got to use my Organic Chemistry textbook two semesters in a row.

Even if you buy the books second hand, from another student or your campus bookstore, it’s still expensive enough for a one-shot kind of deal.

But the University of Toronto bookstore might have a solution. This summer semester, the uToronto bookstore is launching a textbook rental pilot project. After ordering the books online, students pick them up in the store, renting the books for about 40 per cent off the new purchase price.

A similar plan was piloted at the University of Manitoba last semester.

According to the uToronto Bookstore’s website, five titles will be available for the pilot program. The textbook rentals are then returned on a pre-determined Rental Return date. Students are even allowed to highlight and write notes in their rental books. Cool.

Another option is to buy an older edition of a textbook. The changes between editions are usually minimal, and you can save some serious money. The only problem is, even minimal changes can sometimes complicate things. I bought an older edition of my genetics textbook during my second semester. When the professor told the class to read between pages 145 and 192 for the first week, and that the midterm would focus on material from pages 163 and 267, I suddenly realized something: the page numbers between editions weren’t equivalent.

A couple classes I took last semester didn’t even have required texts. Instead, students just accessed a website and printed off course notes.

Meaning, there’s something even better than a rental textbook. No textbook.

-photo courtesy of Evil Erin

1,100 first-year psychology students to re-write midterm

The University of Windsor is probing allegations of cheating that could see 1,100 students being forced to re-write a midterm. The university will not confirm specifics, including what course the alleged cheating took place. However, the Windsor Star reported that the course is called Psychology as a Social Science, a first year class taught by a professor Kenneth Cramer.

The textbook used for the class came with a CD that included multiple choice questions. Evidently, the questions were distributed to students before the exam. Cramer sent an email to his students on Thursday informing them that the midterm will have to be re-written. “The University Academic Integrity Office is currently investigating this matter. As a result, the mid-term results (perhaps only the textbook questions) are deemed invalid and must be tested again in good time. I should have more information from the Integrity Office by early next week so we can find the best way to address this. I cannot have you review your mid-terms, since these are to be turned over to the Integrity Office,” he wrote.

According to the Star, a preliminary investigation revealed that “some students scored near perfect on the textbook questions, yet failed the lecture questions.” A student told the paper that the same textbook is used at the University of Calgary and that this may have been the source of the breach.

More on the debate over assigning one’s own book.

My pal Carson Jerema takes the Globe and Mail to task for being upset by professors assigning their own textbooks. He is right, it seems to me, that this issue is overblown, and right to say that the argument that students won’t question the book rings hollow. The point he spends less time on, and the most interesting one it seems to me, is  the Globe’s assertion that assigning one’s own book represents a conflict of interest.

The conflict of interest argument goes something like this. If a professor is going to assign a textbook to her class, she has an obligation to choose the best book she can. If she herself is in a position to earn money directly by choosing her own book, her personal financial interest is in conflict with her professional obligations. That is, how can one know whether she is assigning that book because it is the best, or just because she wants to line her own pockets? And depending on the class, this money may not be trivial: it may be thousands in royalties. Moreover, if a professor does not assign her own book in her own course, and that fact was picked up on by competing publishers, the overall sales of the book could suffer, costing the professor even more money. It’s not the same as being paid to teach the course itself.

In practice, though,  the conflict of interest does not cause much harm. In the fields where sales are substantial — Intro Psych, Organic Chem — most textbooks are fairly similar, often indistinguishable in all important ways — I know because I used to sell textbooks for a living. So unless Professor Smith has written the one American Government textbook that really sucks, her students are no worse off than they would be with her own book. In more specialized fields, Professor Smith’s book may be the only up-to-date book there is, in which case Smith would be derelict in NOT assigning it.

To be sure, there are abuses. One professor at my university was said to assign his book in every class he taught whether it was relevant or not. Maybe it was relevant; I’m not an expert in his field and I didn’t take his courses. Or maybe he convinced himself that it was relevant to every single course, but that’s where the conflict of interest comes in. We can convince ourselves of a lot if we are to gain from it. But such cases are, in my experience, the exception. In fact, I think most professors are fairly circumspect about it. When I was a doctoral student, my department decided that all English courses must recommend a standard composition handbook, one that happened to be co-authored by the department chair. In anticipation of the raised eyebrows, the chair announced that he was donating all of the royalties earned thereby to charity. It seemed like a good compromise.

In short, the textbook conflict of interest could be a big problem, but as far as I have seen, it just isn’t.

When a textbook’s bias is obvious

I always thought university textbooks were supposed to be objective. An unbiased source of information.

Until my history textbook referred to someone as a “mama’s boy.” Seriously.

According to the textbook, Ibbi-Sin, a king from the Dynasty of Ur, wasn’t just an incompetent ruler. He was “something of a mama’s boy.”

The term “mama’s boy” sounds like a subjective judgement, as opposed to an objective statement of fact. Sure, I know everyone has a bias. Even textbook authors. But I figured that university textbooks should at least appear to be making an attempt at sounding neutral. You know, something more along the lines of ‘attachment disorder’ or ‘parent-child relationship psychosis.’

When I saw that pharse, I was startled. If a history textbook is going to insult someone, I thought they’d call them “inadequate” or “inept.” My textbook is breaking the rules.

That Alexander guy who took over Egypt? A mega-jerk.

Aristotle thought there were only five elements. What a moron!

And Gandhi, whining about human rights and junk. Talk about a cry-ass.

Recent flip-flop by McGuinty government improves policy but could hurt party’s political image

Last Friday (as governments always release bad news on a Friday), the Ontario government announced the cancellation of planned improvements to student financial aid and said they would be scaling back the aid that is currently available. According to the province, the cuts are expected to save $103 million.

It is no secret that I thought the Textbook and Technology Grant was poor public policy and a political gimmick.

It was an election promise designed to maximize positive publicity for the government. The premise was simple: every full-time public post-secondary student attending an Ontario institution would receive a cheque from the government.

It sounded simple enough, so how hard could it be to implement? Get a list of students from each college and university, print a bunch of cheques, send them to Canada Post, and, voila!, every student in the province would get a cheque telling them how much Dalton McGuinty loves them.

Implementation wasn’t that easy, and the system seemed as if it had been designed to frustrate potential applicants.

The government decided there would be a web-based application that every student would use to get the grant. The government, perhaps as an indication of how little money they had to fulfill their election promises, did not engage in much promotion of the program. This resulted in many students not applying for the grant.

To add insult to injury, the government paid colleges and universities in order to provide student lists.

That said, it seems as if the government didn’t mind. After all, it didn’t matter that the grant was poor public policy; it was good politics. Premier Dalton McGuinty could go around the province saying he had “put into place brand new textbook and technology and distance grants…the first of its kind in the country.”

These cutbacks have made the grant a political weak spot for the government. The grants can now be called a broken election promise, which is a criticism to which McGuinty is vulnerable.

However, Friday’s announcement does improve the public policy aspect of these grants.

No longer will these grants go to individuals without any assessed financial need (which, in the overwhelming of incidences, correlates with a lack of financial need). This means money is no longer being directed to “student support,” which does nothing to actually support engagement in post-secondary education. For a student without financial need, the decision to continue in a post-secondary program will not be based on the cost of that education.

There is no longer a need for a costly administration process, as every student receiving OSAP will now automatically get the grant.

While not the best public policy, the new structure of the grant is definitely an improvement. True, there are more effective ways of delivering aid and the grant could be more targeted, but overall, the structure of the grant is better.

The fact the government is freezing the amount of the grant is disappointing. The government could have shown leadership and a true commitment to helping students in need, especially during this time of recession, by diverting funds to those with higher need instead of just cutting benefits to those students with low or no need.

Students say they know it’s stealing, say high education costs justify photocopying

From The Toronto Star:

The high cost of university textbooks in Canada is driving students and copy shops to contravene federal copyright law, creating a thriving underground photocopying industry.

A Star investigation found 10 copy shops near the University of Toronto and Ryerson University willing to either photocopy full textbooks or allow customers to use self-serve copy machines before binding the pages together – creating books as good as new at a fraction of the cost.

Students say they understand photocopying textbooks is akin to stealing from publishers, but argue they have no choice given the high cost of post-secondary education. Depending on the subject, new textbooks can cost as much as $300 per course, adding up to a yearly tab of $1,300 or more.

Publishers say the underground industry across Canada costs $75 million annually in lost revenue, a quarter of their business. Both large and small copy shops have been accused of the practice.

Ontario’s student Textbook and Technology Grant, mentioned in the article, is a helpful initiative, but $150 is a paltry sum considering the cost of textbooks and other learning resources in many programs.

Joey Coleman takes his textbook list on a hunt for the cheapest prices

You can tell it’s almost September because of the back-to-school sale signs that are beginning to pop-up. And while the sales may mean cheap pencils to some people, for university students, they mean getting gouged with high textbook prices.

Joey Coleman takes his textbook list on a hunt for the cheapest prices

You can tell it’s almost September because of the back-to-school sale signs that are beginning to pop-up. And while the sales may mean cheap pencils to some people, for university students, they mean getting gouged with high textbook prices.

Textbooks can easily add a thousand dollars or more each year to the price of getting an education. But now with the internet, students have all sorts of ways to hunt down cheaper prices than are offered by the university bookstore. And so, I went online with my textbook list to see if I could find myself a bargain.

The first step is finding the ISBN numbers for each book. This can be done easily by putting the title into Google and going to the first major bookstore page that shows up in the results. Usually, the ISBN is listed in the details section. Once you had the ISBN, you can search for your books. The best place to look for used textbooks is the book search engine bookfinder4u.com that searches over 130 different sites.

After searching for a few books, I quickly realized that there were five main sites that were worth looking at.

Abebooks.com was my favourite choice for used books because it lists both used books and international editions. The site offered the best deal for used in the case of five of my textbooks, before shipping and handling. Shipping costs vary using this site as many of the books listed are not held by Abebooks.com but are listings similar to eBay. And also like eBay, buy beware: some sellers increase their returns by charging a handling cost.

Next, I checked Chapters, mostly because of its reputation. For one of my books, Chapters offered a lower price for a new version than what I could find for a used one. However, Chapters’ prices were also at the other extreme: a book that my university sells new for $90.95 was sold by Chapters for $118.95. In the case of another book, Chapters offered a used price of $77.40 compared to the lowest price I could find online of $63.15. Considering that I would have to put my faith in the US-based seller to get the book to me in a timely fashion, I decided that I would rather pay a little extra to Chapters and put my mind at ease.

Next up, Amazon.ca, the Canadian website of one of the world’s largest online booksellers. Although Amazon.ca did not offer competitive prices on used books, they did offer the lowest price by far for new versions of six of my textbooks. The best deal was a book that my university sells for $63.95 that Amazon charged $39.03 with free shipping. Two textbooks that my university sells for $56.95 were offered by Amazon for $35.88 with free shipping.

Barnes and Noble, a giant American bookstore, offered used textbooks at an alright price. In the case of my history textbooks, they offered the lowest new prices, and in one case, the cost of membership was less than the savings that membership would offer. Their used listing was pretty good as well. Of course, I have learned using eBay to be weary of ordering over the border and the savings in these cases were not enough to entice me.

Alibris offered good prices on the used textbooks they offered; the problem was that their selection was limited. Now, I am taking a lot of advanced courses this year so you may have more luck with this site. All quotes on the site are in Canadian dollars.

The university bookstore was the easiest to find my books since they listed that all for me, and of course, have them in stock. In only one case did the university offer the lowest price on a new textbook. Even then, it was only $7 less than the next lowest competitor. They consistently were the highest or near the highest for costs of used textbooks. In short, they did not provide the value they claim to provide. Considering that they are ordering in bulk, one would think they would be able to offer a better price. They were unable to tell me if they had used books in stock, so my only option for online ordering was to cross my fingers and hope for a break.

Overall, I decided to pay a little extra and ordered about half of my textbooks new from Amazon and Chapters, taking advantage of free shipping due to the size of my orders. I picked up a few used textbooks and overall saved myself about $750 dollars. It remains to be seen how happy I am with the shipping time involved or the quality of the used textbooks I ordered. I have ordered early enough that I should have all my books in time for the start of classes. Of course, I did not factor in the cost of getting something for the mailman since he is going to have to lug all my textbooks to my door.

I could have saved even more money if I went completely with used textbooks, but the price difference in many cases was not enough to convince me to do so. I like to have my own books, with my own notes and writing (okay, and my own doodling) instead of someone else’s. Considering that Amazon and Chapters offered free shipping, in many cases this meant they were offering a lower overall price that a used book dealer. My advice, spend the time to make a chart so you can clearly see the price difference and then make your own decision based on your personal preferences. Keep an open mind, I started my shopping by planning to go with all used textbooks, I was surprised to find some many deals at Amazon and ended up buying most of my textbooks early. Most importantly, order now! There are only five weeks left till classes start again and you do not want it to be October before your books arrive in the mail.