I took a little walk to the University of North Dakota Barnes and Noble bookstore this afternoon. I started class today and there seemed a mix up with the book I use in Educational Psychology. I wanted to see what was on the shelf.
When at the bookstore I also take a walk down the aisle where our book is displayed. It is fun to see it there. The book has been out for a year so nearly all of the books in the stack now have a used sticker. That is the way the course book market goes.
There were a couple of books in the stack that looked like the covers had been reattached with duct tape and that seemed kind of odd. When I pulled one to take a look, I found most of the entire cover had been covered with this kind of plastic mask. I recognized that the image showing through the mask was different than the cover of the other books and it then dawned on me why the plastic had been attached to the cover. I took a picture with my cell phone and headed home.
The bookstore was selling books intended as examination copies for instructors. The printing on the cover clearly states that the book is an instructor’s copy, is provided free of charge for the purpose of examination, and sale or resale is prohibited. Pretty hard to miss the assumptions made by the publishing company in providing a copy to the instructor.
If you look closely at the repurposed copy, you will see a comment “support recycling” and an assurance that all of the pages in the book are still there. The publishing companies have a recycling plan too. Most examination copies now come with a return label so that the instructor can ship the book back to the publisher at no expense if there is no reason to keep the book on his/her shelf. No one says the rejects must accumulate in local land fills.
I wonder about the reason for the mask. Is the book store embarrassed to admit they sell books clearly not intended for sale? Would such a message be contrary to the values supposedly promoted by educational institutions?
I wonder if institutions such as mine condone this practice. A recent edict made it clear that faculty members cannot accept gifts/payments associated with the adoption of a textbook. Ironic isn’t it – it is unacceptable to accept a couple hundreds bucks as payment for serious consideration of an adopted book, but perhaps fine to make far more selling the books you don’t adopt.
P.S. This post prompted considerable discussion among my faculty colleagues. One who obviously is more familiar with the official expectations of our university than I am sent me the following.
11.2 COMPLIMENTARY TEXTBOOKS
The University Senate strongly recommends that complimentary textbooks which are not being retained not be resold. These books should be donated to the appropriate UND library, a colleague, or another nonprofit institution or otherwise appropriately disposed of without infringing on the right of the publisher and/or author. The University Bookstore is requested to refrain from selling complimentary copies of textbooks.
Approved: UND Senate, 02-01-90
(I bolded the last sentence.)
