US students could see fall in textbook prices

The new federal law requires publishers to provide lecturers, frequently called ‘professors’ in the US, with textbook prices when marketing the books.  Publishers must also offer students the option to unbundle textbook packages.

Colleges are also now required to tell students which texts are needed at least one term beforehand.  The new law is part of the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 which aims to make education fairer and more transparent and to circumvent existing financial barriers to students.

“The goal of this law is to make the market more fair for the students,” said Nicole Allen, textbook advocate for CalPIRG (California Public Interest Research Group).  She adds: “Right now, the publishers have an unfair advantage that this law will limit."

Meanwhile, Apple's iPad's potential as an e-textbook reader for students remains debatable, in part because an e-textbook cannot be resold.  And e-readers and the iPad only allow the user to look at just one book at a time, whereas many students may need to look at several at any one time.