Xref: utzoo sci.math:4840 sci.physics:4893 comp.edu:1453 Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!pyrdc!pyrnj!rutgers!mit-eddie!killer!elg From: elg@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Eric Green) Newsgroups: sci.math,sci.physics,comp.edu Subject: Re: How to beat the high cost of text books! Message-ID: <6171@killer.DALLAS.TX.US> Date: 20 Nov 88 01:41:09 GMT References: Organization: The Unix(R) Connection, Dallas, Texas Lines: 27 in article , johnm@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com (John Murray) says: > In article <2219@cbnews.ATT.COM>, lvc@cbnews.ATT.COM (Lawrence V. Cipriani) writes: >> Yet another quarter passes at Ohio State University where I pay >> a lot of money for a book that is hardly used. So I figure there >> has to be a better way ... > Why not abolish the publishers' restrictions on importing textbooks into > the US? So-called "International Editions" of many common US textbooks > are produced by the same publishing corporations for sale in Europe and > elsewhere, and cost maybe one quarter the price of the US edition. There is, or at least was, a law regulating importation of printed material. I don't remember any details about it, alas... I've been thinking about a used textbook co-op for some time. What it would be is basically a used-book classified ad paper, bypassing the college bookstores with their 100% markup on used books. You might try organizing something like that on your college campus. Talk to the people at your college newspaper, your student government (if you can get their attention -- most student governments spend all their time organizing parties and pep rallies), your university administration, etc., if you really are serious about something like that (on retrospect, I don't need cheap books THAT bad...). -- Eric Lee Green ..!{ames,decwrl,mit-eddie,osu-cis}!killer!elg Snail Mail P.O. Box 92191 Lafayette, LA 70509