Taking the taxes off textbooks would be a start, but the problem with expensive textbooks goes a lot deeper than whether sales tax is collected on them.

Part of it comes down to greed on the part of authors and book publishers, literally releasing new versions of their books every couple of years, even if nothing significant changes in the field, just to force people to buy the new books instead of being able to resell old books.

The other part of the problem is the primary role of textbooks in the first place. Even with the best book, the second it has been published is out of date. Harnessing the power of the Internet using collaborative Web 2.0 tools and constantly updated online resources would ultimately lead to better learning. Students could be involved in the creation of material to be taught and shared within the class.

Professors shouldn't ban the use of wikipedia as a source for information, like some do; it should be the students' textbook. If something there is missing or incomplete, let the students research the topic and update the wikipedia page and share their knowledge with the world.

Professors, set your students free.

But--but--won't that amount to a subsidy of students who are attending BYU? Aren't we infringing on the separation between church and state? Oh, the horrors!

sarcasm

I first liked this idea, but I am thinking that we would be best suited to just fight to keep tuition and fees down. A tuition bill has as much hidden in it as a phone bill.

I agree with the previous posting about wikipedia, but the student's exposure to academia should include critically discerning valid sources. I use wikipedia frequently, but would never utilize it as a substitute for scholarly work in academic writing. However, I cannot think of a better exercise than updating wikipedia as a pedagogical tool.

Following that thread we have made our students too dependent on textbooks. Professors need to provide students with the tools necessary to interrogate the academic world in all its forms rather than simply depositing information into their heads through textbooks.

I would have no problem with a textbook tax credit.

I misunderstood. Let me restate. I would have no problem with eliminating the textbook tax.

Everything the government touches gets more inefficient and more expensive!
If they take the tax off the books, they will have to make up for somewhere else....like higher tuition!
It is not a 0 sum game with the government....it is always a negative sum!

To taxbreak 10:53, you are exactly right. 200 words wasn't enough for me to go into more detail. :)

Professors routinely write scholarly articles as part of their promotion and tenure process, in a peer-reviewed process that is often not understood by students or others outside academia. Undergrads rarely see any of this research, as they are too busy simply memorizing from their textbook.

Information Literacy is KEY in a revolution as described above so that students can tell what are good sources and what are junk. Depending on textbooks does nothing to help student information literacy skills. Just because it's in a textbook doesn't mean it's true, so I definitely agree with you there about students being too dependent on textbooks.

They are also becoming dependent on Google and Wikipedia, but as consumers, because again we have not taught them collaboration. We have taught them that collaboration = cheating. Get the students producing instructional materials from their professors' research and sharing it with others, rather than just consuming, plagiarizing, and regurgitating it.

It's not good to be dependent on any one source...diversify!

One way for students to reduce textbook costs is to order them from Europe. In the US, many texts are only available in hardback but can be purchased in paperback from European bookstores. A few years ago I was able to obtain a popular genetics text from Amazon's UK website for less than half of the cost at the Duke, UNC-CH, NC State, or NCCU bookstores even after paying for shipping. The cost was over $130.00 at the university bookstores. With common science texts running at nearly $150.00, it makes sense.