In discovering non-geology majors had paid $100 for an entry-level geology course textbook, Professor Steve Esling decided the market was ripe for a new approach.

He and a group of other geology faculty members at Southern Illinois University Carbondale put their heads together and offered this alternative: An online textbook developed in-house.

"In a sense I guess it's saying to heck with the publishers," Esling said.

Almost.

Esling still needs, and has been in contact with, a publishing company in pursuing the idea of offering an Internet-based textbook to students taking basic geology courses on campus. He admits he and his group are novices to the online publishing world.

"If a miracle happens we'll have it done by fall of 2006," Esling added.

The university already has the basic technological infrastructure to set it up, Esling noted. Using WebCT, SIUC's program that allows students access to a databank of online course content, he said his group may be able to offer an alternative to students dropping 100 dead presidents for a single new textbook, or even the $50 to $75 it costs to pick one up used at the local bookstores.

Reaction to the idea from students has been mixed, ranging from enthusiastic to "lukewarm," Esling said.

The geology department's online endeavor is just one of several alternatives university communities across the state and nation are beginning to create in light of the high - and getting higher - prices associated with textbooks.

Whether one attends a four-year university or a community college, like Shawnee Community College student Ted Shaffer of Anna, few wallets are spared in buying textbooks.

"For this semester, I have five classes; I only had to buy books for three of them," said Shaffer, 34, a non-traditional student studying engineering. "It came out to $450 for just those three books."

Publishers are tightly regulated in textbook costs when it comes to grade schools, Shaffer said, but they are allowed to basically "run wild" in higher education.

Shaffer said that leads publishing companies to release frequently updated editions of the same books with little change between versions.

"We have books that are on their 10th edition that are very similar to their first edition that came out years ago," he said. "It's really irresponsible on the part of the textbook companies."

The problem has caught the attention of Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn, who's responded with an initiative to push for legislation to end some of the practices of publishers.

Quinn said he wants to end the practice of "bundling" textbooks, a phenomenon where publishers package CD ROMs and other additional workbooks with the textbook to drive up the overall price. Most of the times, he said, university professors don't use and are even unaware the textbook they purchase comes with such items.

Second, Quinn said he'd like to do away with sales tax on textbooks. Third, he is urging students across the state to form purchasing cooperatives, offering a larger assortment of used textbooks from a centrally located source.

Quinn said it's an important matter that needs attention.

"With a lot of these students this is a huge cost that can make or break them," he noted.

Unfortunately, said SIUC professor James Allen, he has found textbooks are expenses to which a number of faculty members are oblivious. Allen chaired a committee of the university's Faculty Senate this past year, studying how professors choose and order textbooks for the courses they teach.

"It was evident to us not very many faculty know how much their books cost when they order them," he said.

That is not completely their fault, Allen added, as textbooks are one of the strange markets that don't readily reveal their prices.

"It doesn't have a price, it has a barcode, and the barcode is there to deliberately hide the price," Allen said.

As with any market, he said, it works best when the consumer is well informed. Allen said the committee came up with several solutions the SIUC community could start implementing. However, action on the discussion has fallen by the wayside for the moment, he added.

"Unfortunately nobody is doing anything about it right now, except the lieutenant governor," Allen said.

He's not quite sure the problem will be handily solved with legislative action, but until the issue begins taking a noticeable toll on retention rates, Allen said, university officials aren't like to jump to action.

caleb.hale@thesouthern.com

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