Talk:Bookbuyer Policy
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Please let me have your thoughts on how our university should deal with bookbuyers on campus. Mstevens 24 August 2005 15:51 (EDT)
I'd like for us to establish a policy that does two things:
1) Allows those of us who want to sell books to bookbuyers to do so. 2) Allows those of us who DON'T want to sell books not to be bothered by bookbuyers.
Here's one way I thought could do both: Set up a bookbuyer's list in the VPAA's office to which any of us can sign up. We could give our office phones, spsu email addresses, and office numbers. That list would be given to any bookbuyers who request it, and even be put on the web.
That way, bookbuyers would know much more easily who wants to sell and can even contact faculty by phone or email instead of having to drop by when people aren't in. They'd also know not to contact faculty who aren't on the list. If bookbuyers are bugging non-selling faculty, we can at first just notify them to contact the VPAA's Office about the list. If non-selling faculty are bothered again by the same bookbuyer, we can notify the buyer that they are in violation of university policy.
Does this sound workable? I'm trying to make this a win-win.
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Use Marked Doors
I like Mark's idea with one addition to it. IF my name is on the list for book buyers to visit, then I will place a marker of some kind (inexpensive book magnet or something) on my door indicating they can stop by and visit. Therefore, if I don't have books to sell, they shouldn't stop by. When the book buysers are given the list of faculty who will sell books, they should also receive a write-up on how to determine who currently has texts to sell.
Briana Morrison --Bmorrison 25 August 2005 13:27 (EDT)
I like Briana's idea and would take a little further. Why bother giving the book buyers a list of faculty willing to sell books? Why not just use the marker on the door? Let the buyers walk the halls to find the sellers rather than SPSU doing their work for them?
Also, I hope the University Police require the buyers to check in with them before going around campus.
Tom
I'd like to keep the idea of an official list so bookbuyers cannot "mistake" some note on a faculty member's door as an invitation. Bob Brown 25 August 2005 16:12 (EDT)
Don't forget that there is an office on campus that is already charged with being the point of contact for venders. They could probably also take on this function. (Steve H.)
Another option... No Bookbuyers
I wonder whether we need to allow bookbuyers on campus at all.
Some months ago I got junk mail offering to buy books by mail. I pitched it, but just now I typed "sell textbooks" into Google and got many hits for organizations that will buy books by remote control. The first hit is a company that will even let you print a "postage due" label to ship your books to them.
Just for grins I put in the ISBNs of the books I'm using this semester. They offered $48 (total) for three of them in used condition. They did not want the fourth one because there is a new edition. (I have continued to use the second edition to try to make life a little easier for students, but will have to switch to the third in spring.)
I am told that we have a "no solicitation" policy, although everything I can find applies to students. If we do have such a policy, and given how easy it is for those who want to sell books to do so by remote control, do we need to allow bookbuyers on campus at all?
A Question of Ethics
I look at this from another perspective since my father is an author of Physics text books. From what I can understand (and I could be wrong), most of the textbooks we have in our offices were provided to us by publishers as review copies. In fact, some of these are marked as such either with stamps or stickers. If we sell them to buyers then the author of these books and the publishers get nothing for their work.
Most people don't realize that one of the major contributing factors for higher priced text books and shorter revision cycles is the used book market. It's almost pure profit (given what they pay and what they charge) for the book buyers. Authors and publishers used to be able to get reasonable returns on their hard work (nobody gets rich by any means) for up to 5 years with the 3 year mark representing the peak. Now it's less than 3 years with the peak after one year.
For this reason I refuse to sell to book buyers and will hold on to my books for reference. When a new revision comes out making the old version undesirable I give them to students who would probably not otherwise have purchased the book.
To get a little more background I talked with my father this afternoon and he indicated that TAA (Text and Academic Authors Association) has been discussing how some Universities are putting policies into place policies discouraging the selling of textbooks to book buyers. In effect, selling books this way indirectly hurts students by contributing to the rising cost of textbooks and shortening revision cycles.
(Scott Tippens)
I agree with Scott. What books do we have that we would be selling that would not be review copies? If there is an occurence where a prof may have books that were purchased and he or she desires to be resold, why can't they simply sell them through the internet as mentioned above? We certainly do not want to have to require some system that determines whether any book being sold was or was not given as a review copy, but I hope that we maintain our high ethical standard and refuse to sell review copies of texts.
(Lance Crimm)
Additional Arguments against Supporting Book Buyers
An article was published about the rising cost of text books in the AJC last year called "Chapter and Purse" (Nov. 26, 2004). My father wrote a response letter that I do not think was published but addresses the book seller issue nicely. I've included it here:
I read with interest, your article on the climbing cost of college textbooks and the response from the publisher’s representative. I thought it might be good for you to hear the author’s viewpoint on this issue. First, let me introduce myself. I have been an author of physics textbooks for McGraw-Hill for the past 35 years, and I am now completing the seventh edition of “College Physics.” I am an Emeritus Professor at SPSU, and I have taught at various colleges for over 35 years. I’m a past vice-president of the Text and Academic Authors Association (TAA) and have participated in many conventions addressing concerns of authors. This background is given only to establish that I do have credentials to back up my views on the subject of the escalating cost of textbooks.
The high cost of college text books is primarily due to the enormous profits made from the sale of used books, and not from the usual suspects—that is, the publishers and authors. Bruce Hildebrand (AAP), in the AJC article, quotes a cost of $1 million to produce a complex textbook, and he advises that the cost to students is 6 percent of his educational expenditures. A typical author works almost daily for 2 years to produce a textbook and the ancillary products that support it. For a textbook that sells for $100, a bookstore or internet site can buy the book from students after one-semester for only $25 and sell it back for $50. This is accomplished without the enormous investment of time and production costs. But even more alarming is the fact that the author and publisher receive no compensation from such sales. The music industry has copyright protection that places restrictions on the commercial resale of their products. Publishers and authors do not.
It is not being suggested that a student should be prevented from selling a used textbook. Certainly, as an individual, he or she will always have that option. What I’m trying to point out is that the market drives the publishing industry just like it drives all of our economic enterprises. If we forget for the moment that intellectual property rights are an issue, there is still the fact that the market has changed considerably in the past ten years. The trend in college bookstores is toward private operation, which means that Barnes and Noble or similar enterprises may run your campus bookstores. Also, there are hundreds of web sites that compete for the sale of used and new books at substantial prices with very little investment.
Many instructors sell new copies of complimentary textbooks to bookstores and to independent buyers who solicit such items on campus. A significant number of these items find their way to book stores who put them on their shelves and sell them at the new-book prices right along with those received from the publisher—again, without the significant investment. Some bookstores even encourage professors to wait on the adoption of a brand new textbook until the used book inventory has arrived. After all, isn’t the goal to reduce costs to students?
The cost of textbook production has risen to the point where publishers and authors must make their profit during the first year of production. After that it is predominantly taken over by the used-book market. The result is that publishers MUST raise the selling price of books, and they must revise more often, and they must study other ways to recoup their investment—the same way as for the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker. The bottom line is that students are now spending about as much on a used book as they would have paid the publisher, had not this middleman arrived.
(Posted by Scott Tippens for Paul E. Tippens, Emeritus Professor, SPSU)
Classic SPSU... Are we reinventing a wheel resolved in the past?
Seems like we constantly are going in circles with our policies and procedures. My old office of G138 has such a sticker that is obviously dated and showing wear. It basically states that this office does not sell professionial copies while humorously casting such an activity negatively. Take a look at it! (G138)
Lance
