With college students paying upwards of $1200 each year for their textbooks, any move to bring relief to cash strapped students is certainly welcome news. University Press of Florida is doing its part to help ease college costs by offering 120 textbooks and scholarly monographs online for free. To bring about that change, the textbook publishing company launched a new imprint, Orange Grove Texts Plus (OGT+), to advance this initiative.
Discounted Printed Textbooks Too
In addition to offering select books online at no charge, University Press of Florida is offering bound printed textbooks for as much as 50% off the price of traditional textbooks. These efforts together should bring significant relief to Florida students, who can do most of their ordering online, bypassing pricey campus bookstores for much of their textbook needs.
State University System Chancellor Frank T. Brogan has expressed support for the new venture. “This entrepreneurial partnership is testing new waters in book publishing to offer flexibility for professors and less expensive textbooks for students. I’m proud that this innovation is coming out of Florida’s higher-education community, and I’m excited about the future possibilities this experiment could bring to how we manage textbook costs.”
One example of a book that is available for free online or discounted for purchase is Images of the Woman Reader in Victorian British and American Fiction by Catherine J. Golden which typically retails as a hardcover book for $59.95. A bound paperback copy of this same book is now priced at $29.50 or students can read it online for free.
Saving Students Money
SayCampusLife.com has been tracking current trends in the college textbook publishing and retail industries and has been reporting a number of ways that students can save money. Textbook rental companies such as Chegg.com, CampusBookRentals.com and CollegeBookRental.com have emerged in recent years to serve college students. Students can also take advantage of cheap textbooks offered in the online market.
In addition, open source material from Flat World Knowledge has made some titles available to students while Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina has a 70+ year old program where students can get some of their textbooks for free.
Students Have A Choice
While we don’t believe that author’s works should be offered for no charge, we’re happy to see that steps are being taken to offer students an option to campus bookstores which have long held a monopoly on the college textbook market.
Source: University Press of Florida
Resources
Appalachian State Textbook Rental Program Worth Emulating
College Bookstores Defend Their Market
Free College Textbooks: Fad or Fabulous?
Off To College: Avoid the College Bookstore!
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