This isn’t 1982 anymore

Yuni Kim
News Editor
I think it’s tragic textbooks cost so much. When you finish a degree, you ought to have not just a degree, but a library to refer to for most disciplines. Wouldn’t you want to refer back to your first book?” queried Steven Glassman, director of the York University Bookstore. He has some thoughts on the future of the textbook industry.
“Even the e-book can be very interesting […] but if the publishers choose to have them disappear on you after a period of time, it’s the same problem. Sure, you might be getting a discount, but it’s horrific that it disappears on you because again, you have no book at the end,” said Glassman.

“The fundamental problem – whether it’s with rental, used books or e-books – is that the publishers have been charging prices at twice the rate of inflation for two decades now. I bought a book here at York in 1982 called Statistics for Business and Economics. I happen to still have the York Bookstore receipt for it.”
“If I went to the government of Canada inflation calculator, I can tell you what it should be. I paid $20.35 for it [in 1982], and it should be at around $45.59 now. It should not cost $183 for that title today,” he explained.
“For example, statistics haven’t changed that much. Average, mean, curve […] what [is different] that they’re teaching today? My book even had colour in it, so they can’t argue that it’s because all our books were printed in black and white. Our books back then had coloured graphs.”
“What rental does, and I think the York Federation of Students [YFS] has it pretty right, it allows the person who can’t afford to shell out the money. It takes advantage of that person that doesn’t have the money for all of these books upfront, so they rent. The YFS may have it right; rental programs aren’t solving the problem by any means with the inflated cost of books, but as a bookseller, it’s something else that we want to offer.”
“In the meantime, we’ll be lobbying to the publishers through our campus associations as well. I can give you an example, where apparently though our lobbying efforts, one of the major publishers [Pearson] sent out a letter from its president saying that they are reducing prices in Canada.”
“Our job as a campus store is not to gouge students. It’s to have everything available for them. Rental is another way to try and have things available for them. Maybe for some, it’s a better option.”