Help Our Students Manage the Rising Costs of College Textbooks

[Image Source: National Association of College Stores, via Larry Dignan/ZDNet] 

Business professors, do you know small decisions you make as professors can make a big difference in the cost of education for our students? Here are a few simple steps you can take to help our students manage the rising costs of education.


1. Put your textbooks on library reserve
Course Reserves are materials (such as books, articles, films, etc.) which have been given a limited loan period at the request of a faculty member usually for a class. At Chatham University, these materials can be either selections from JKM Library's collection or a faculty member's personal copy.

For instructions, please visit the Chatham library webpage for reserves at:
http://library.chatham.edu/screens/reserves.html

2. Adopt a low-cost textbook
The traditional textbooks can cost $100-200 each, and the publisher regularly pushes for new editions which the bookstores are required to order, and which make the older editions obsolete on the used-book market. Publishers liked Flatworld Knowledge have emerged to provide lower-cost solutions of comparable quality. The textbook is available online for a low fee, and the hard copy is also available for a little extra. Study packets and instructor support are also available. The international business and information systems textbooks I have used are of reasonable quality. They are not as fancy as their traditional counterparts, but I simply supplement with other materials, such as videos, Harvard cases, or additional readings.

Please browse their catalog for business and accounting topics. Perhaps you can find something you can use next year!
http://catalog.flatworldknowledge.com/catalog/disciplines/1/titles

Do you have other tips for helping students manage textbook costs? Please share with us!