Spring Break
Open ISBN offers opportunity to save money on textbooks
Bryan Carroll
Issue date: 1/29/09 Section: Commentary
Anyone who has recently bought textbooks from the UConn Co-op knows that you might need a suitcase or wheelbarrow full of money just to cover the expanding cost of that particular edition or class supplement. Publishers say that textbook prices have remained flat for last few years. However, students in ECON 1010 or PSYC 1303 might beg to differ, or any recent lecture course, mind you.
One thing that students could do is use each and every school break to raise the majority of funds needed to cover the price of textbooks for that semester. Yet there is a hidden opportunity for the UConn Co-op to aid students further than just that one semester in covering the cost of textbooks. The prevailing tone of higher prices in this stagnant economy has students, as well as their parents, mindful of every penny. President Hogan formed a cost-cutting task force in November 2008 in response to a reduction of appropriations from the state to help refine the costs of the university passed down to the student.
Therefore, students might take stock in reducing their own spending and find savings where they can. Yet there might be a hidden marriage in savings for both the university and the student. The bookstore, or the coined UConn Co-op has an opportunity to help students save on course materials and textbooks.
It's called Open ISBN. The ISBN is a 10-digit number that uniquely identifies books published in the United States. The purpose of the ISBN is to establish and identify one title or edition of a textbook from one specific publisher and is unique to that edition. Unlike other colleges in Connecticut, the UConn Co-op does not provide the ISBN to students for cost comparison. According to a recent Boston Globe article, "the average estimated cost of books and supplies per first-time full-time student was $886 - almost three-quarters of the cost of tuition and fees at a community college."
The Office of Financial Aid provides a yearly outlook of $800 dollars every year here at UConn for textbooks alone.
One thing that students could do is use each and every school break to raise the majority of funds needed to cover the price of textbooks for that semester. Yet there is a hidden opportunity for the UConn Co-op to aid students further than just that one semester in covering the cost of textbooks. The prevailing tone of higher prices in this stagnant economy has students, as well as their parents, mindful of every penny. President Hogan formed a cost-cutting task force in November 2008 in response to a reduction of appropriations from the state to help refine the costs of the university passed down to the student.
Therefore, students might take stock in reducing their own spending and find savings where they can. Yet there might be a hidden marriage in savings for both the university and the student. The bookstore, or the coined UConn Co-op has an opportunity to help students save on course materials and textbooks.
It's called Open ISBN. The ISBN is a 10-digit number that uniquely identifies books published in the United States. The purpose of the ISBN is to establish and identify one title or edition of a textbook from one specific publisher and is unique to that edition. Unlike other colleges in Connecticut, the UConn Co-op does not provide the ISBN to students for cost comparison. According to a recent Boston Globe article, "the average estimated cost of books and supplies per first-time full-time student was $886 - almost three-quarters of the cost of tuition and fees at a community college."
The Office of Financial Aid provides a yearly outlook of $800 dollars every year here at UConn for textbooks alone.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Andy Weissberg
posted 1/29/09 @ 9:08 AM EST
ISBNs are actually now 13-digit numbers, and the former 10-digit versions are now converted to a 13-digit format.
Wes Houck
posted 2/04/09 @ 8:55 AM EST
Using ISBN's to search for textbooks will match to the exact textbook edition required for a course. I would suggest using StudentBookTrades.com to search for textbooks. (Continued…)
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