the necessary text.
My colleagues have similar
stories for our large intro classes.
It shouldn't be a
scavenger hunt.
Somewhere there's a number,
the number of spaces in our sections.
Somewhere a gleaming machine
contains this number. It's not a secret.
They make the book still, right?
Somewhere there are boxes of them.
Just not here.
I have found that our SLAC's bookstore explicitly orders only about half the books required for any given section, since in their experience that's the fraction of students who actually buy a copy from them.
ReplyDeleteSeriously. They think the answer to having not enough sales is to reduce their inventory.
Do we teach at the same school?
DeleteIndeed! I told a student yesterday, when finding out the store had under-ordered once again, that most of the readings in the text I use can be found on the web. It's not what I wanted to say, but I'm sick of fighting the book store.
ReplyDeleteA similar downward spiral is in place at my institution. This is, of course, a major argument for affordable e-textbooks (and good annotation software).
ReplyDeleteI streaked by the bookstore when I was an undergrad, wearing shoes and socks. I think those bookstore people look out their bookstore windows at the world and envy the rest of us having fun (or, at least, being interestingly miserable).
ReplyDelete