With textbook costs increasing at a rapid rate, students and organizations are using technology for cheaper alternatives.

“It’s just unfair,” said Danya Demeo, a senior biology and neuroscience major. “Most of the textbooks I have to purchase are specific to my major and I have to buy them new at full-price.”

Textbook prices have been on a sharp rise for the past decade, according to a June 2013 report by the Government Accountability Office, which found that the cost of new textbooks rose an astounding 82 percent from 2002-2012.

“Textbooks are expensive because the textbook marketplace doesn’t work like a normal marketplace,” said Nicole Allen, a program director for the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition. “Publishers essentially have free range to set prices very high.”

SPARC, an advocacy group, is looking to promote Open Educational Resources. These include textbooks and other learning materials that have been published online under a license that makes their content available to the public for free, according to SPARC’s website.

Now, there are about 100 open textbooks available to the public, Allen said.

One of the pioneering Open Educational Resources initiatives is called OpenStax College. Since 2012, this Rice University initiative, funded partially by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has offered free peer-reviewed open source textbooks, Allen said.

Because the content is licensed under Creative Commons, the material can be reused, revised, remixed and redistributed freely.

“Government also has a vested interest in OER because it could dramatically cut down the amount of spending that financial aid is used for with textbooks,” Allen said.

While open source textbooks are perhaps the way of the future, the selection is still quite limited at this time, Allen said.

Frustrated by the high cost of textbooks, Kyle Coleman, a senior majoring in accounting, information management and technology, economics and finance, designed a database for Syracuse University students called Books2Bucks.

“Books2Bucks is essentially an online marketplace for students to trade and sell textbooks directly to each other at a fraction of the cost,” said Coleman in an email.

Coleman said he came up with the idea during his sophomore year. While with the Student Association, he emphasized the importance of the program.

“While we really didn’t have the power to lower tuition costs, I thought that lowering the price of textbooks could be a great start,” Coleman said.

Working hand in hand with the SU bookstore, Coleman created a website for students to buy and sell textbooks directly to each other. While many students were doing this via Facebook groups, Books2Bucks added a search feature for title, author and ISBN code for more specific and tailored results.

“Right now, the traffic is very minimal on the site,” said Coleman. “It has the potential to help so many students, but I just don’t have the time to put into it to make it a success.”

Coleman said he hopes the website will see some kind of resurgence. For now, he wants students to find frugal ways to acquire their textbooks.

Published on August 28, 2013 at 1:47 am

Contact Levi: ldstei01@syr.edu