Why Exactly Aren’t All Course Readings Online?

In three of my classes this semester I have no textbooks. I repeat, no actual textbooks. These aren’t easy or reading light courses I’m talking about. No, these are upper level history courses. As a result I have a few hundred dollars in my pocket that I otherwise would not. I’ve been asking around a bit and it seems that my situation is rather unique. I guess I’m just lucky.

But it seems to me that there is a huge incentive for the university to put all their readings online. For one thing, it makes life easier for students. It also would take away some hesitation students have from taking more classes (because lets be honest, money is an issue). Beyond that though –because the truth is the university doesn’t always have the students’ best interests in mind– it would also make this already highly respected university stand out more. How many other schools make it a huge priority to dramatically bring book costs down?

I know it isn’t that simple though. There are some classes where textbooks are simply unavoidable. On the other hand there are plenty of classes where shelling out $40 for a book students are going to read twice (at most) is really just a waste of money. There’s also the fact that book publishers are ready to fight to the death over universities using textbooks. Still, the burden of tuition and books each semester weighs especially heavily these days. If students simply had to pay printer fees life might be a bit easier for us poor undergrads.

Post script:

I was going to pick an image from this site of bookshelves to include in this post but I couldn’t decide. So many good pictures. Check them out for yourself here.

–Daniel Strauss