Word: textbooks
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Last Thursday, Coop staff members, who have been asking anyone copying down book information to leave, called the Cambridge Police Department on three undergraduates working for CrimsonReading.org, a student-run Web site that allows students to compare textbook prices among online retailers, when they refused to leave for writing down ISBNs. Coop officials declined to comment over the weekend...
...This sentiment, however, both vainly ignores the value of the Coop’s unique service as well as risks making students sound like spoiled brats. Indeed, the Coop’s markup on course books is noticeable if not obscene: an abbreviated visit to the textbook bazaar will sufficiently validate many of the complaints. The discrepancy between publishers’ list and the Coop’s retail prices may often call into question at least the business sense, if not the integrity, of the bookstore’s proprietors. If nearly everyone acknowledges the price-gouging, why would...
Last Thursday, the Coop called the cops on three undergraduates who were busily recording ISBNs, or book serial numbers, for Crimsonreading.com, a student-run Web site that allows visitors to compare textbook prices between the pricey Coop and its cheaper, web-based competitors like Amazon.com. [SEE CORRECTION BELOW] The Coop huffed that the ISBNs were their intellectual property since it went through the effort of soliciting and collecting book lists from professors, and that it doesn’t allow extended note taking by students. Dry-eyed, the two Cambridge police officers left the students untouched, and the students continued...
...before we wax indignant over this bookstore bully, we wish to highlight the real problem: lazy faculty. Professors should burn the extra calories it takes to type these ISBNs on their syllabi and post them online early, so students can find their textbooks at more affordable venues. With relatively little effort, the faculty would be doing a major service for its students, especially financially strapped students who work hard to conserve their cash. It also would force the Coop, which currently has a virtual stranglehold over the Harvard textbook market, to lower its prices to compete with other bookstores soaking...
CORRECTION: Last Monday’s editorial "Uncooperative" referred to CrimsonReading.com as a student-run textbook comparison Web site. In fact, the Web site is called CrimsonReading.org. The Crimson regrets the error...