Coursepack printer unnecessarily expensive
Former Rice Bookstore Manager Evelyn Morton’s motives for switching the coursepack printer from Kinko’s to XanEdu, a specialty publisher, remain unknown (See story, page X). What we do know is that we do not approve. While the current bookstore management researches options for next semester’s coursepack printer, we hope they keep the following in mind.
Ensuring copyright compliance should be the first and foremost priority in choosing a printer, and price should follow right on its heels. We would like to be able to return our coursepacks when we drop classes, but we would rather be able to afford them in the first place. We are concerned about 150-300 percent increases in coursepack prices, and we hope the bookstore management keeps cost and profit margins as narrow as possible in order to drive down prices.
Additionally, we encourage faculty to be mindful of the financial burden that accompanies each copyrighted coursepack article. We appreciate coursepacks and do not want to see the end of detailed, neatly packaged course notes — but there are alternative, less expensive methods of distributing academic articles en masse. Using articles from JSTOR or storing them on Fondren Library’s electronic reserve are only two of many ways that allow students quick and free access to the pieces without violating copyright law. And Owlspace provides an excellent vehicle for distributing non-copyright protected material without wasting paper or forcing students to pay for a coursepack. We like the handiness of a coursepack, but saving green — both on the trees and in our wallets — is often more important than being able to carry every assigned article with us at all times. Plus, it saves everyone the pain of dealing with misprints in coursepacks, which costs paper and money in itself.
It is up to the faculty to use coursepacks judiciously, and it is up to the bookstore management to be judicious in choosing a printer. So as next semester’s coursepacks are compiled, ordered and printed, we hope those who have a hand in the process will have an eye out for students’ interests.
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