It is an accepted scam of textbook publishers that they include minor changes in standard textbooks each year to force students to purchase new books each year and devalue second hand books. If, instead of purchasing an entire volume, a textbook was amenable to revision by being published in looseleaf form where a few older pages could be discarded and replaced by page revisions, the skyrocketing cost of up to date books could be controlled. Education costs are already in severe trouble and this could help a bit. Also, if chapters were removeable, a student could merely carry the current chapters to class instead of the total heavy volume. it would ease the burden of children carrying heavy books to school which is a real problem. The flexible textbook could also be modified by teachers who could have their students insert pages produced on a copy machine which could complement special areas in which the individual instructors have a special interest. At first glance this might be difficult to get into commercial production as it would seem to decrease the profits of the text publishers, but there would probably be an increase of the diversity of special materials which might be profitable for publishers and this would make the text business more rational and less of a scam situation.
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Upon further consideration, there are other avenues to be explored in the nature of a textbook within this arrangement. If a textbook were constructed in a looseleaf form, the student could intersperse pages of his/her own within the text which could be solutions to presented problems, material obtained from other sources illustrating further examples of the nature of the text and more advanced material which would appeal to the personal viewpoint of the student and perhaps graphics introduced to make the points of the text clearer. In that manner, the standardized material would become more personalized and therefore more valuable to the student who could pursue areas more intimately. It would, in effect, become a diary of the advance of the student into the subject.
As printed information goes, textbooks are useful since the information is portable, and easily accessible in all locations and at all times. I can visualize a time when, at least for on-campus work, the need for a textbook is minimized due to a broadband connection to the university professor's own "work in progress" as textbooks. Wifi hotspot connections within schoolrooms, dorms, cafeterias, tablet computers, and surprise...instant information.
Setting aside a large discussion on copyright issues and royalties, it is technically possible to burn a CD as a textbook today. Then, a student could use it as you suggest, adding additional information as they complete their studies. Book costs (outside of royalties) could be only a few dollars, instead of a $100 a pop.
Why doesn't this happen? Two reasons: most professors take the easy way out, and it is easier to select a textbook with standardized information, format, and a plan for achieving a set level of performance for the semester, and also some professors make a nice sum for actually writing the textbooks and the annual updates.
Regarding a loose-leaf notebook....for some of my classes in a Master's program, there were not any textbooks on the subjects we were investigating, so the "textbook" of choice was a looseleaf collection of magazine and web articles on the hi-tech breaking news. The "cost" of this type of textbook was the substitution (in some cases) of hard facts and data for marketing oriented literature that tended to distort the overall picture. The ancillary cost is that it was hard to recognize the value of the course, since similiar courses at other universities were on a different set of handouts.
I am a fan of Wikipedia, which has a variety of links to all sorts of information. As one researches a particular topic, there are links allowing the user to investigate on their own.
As a current college student, I can tell you that the looseleaf textbook does exist, but only as a cheaper alternative to the hardcover edition. I really doubt that the idealistic revision-saving version you describe will ever emerge(because the profit motive still exists), though I sincerely hope that it should. I can also testify that the CD-textbook(interactive and with internet update of prof on a student's reading and exercises, no less) exists along with the web-only texbook(with appropriately-restricted access, of course), though neither of these innovations succeeds in bringing the cost down to "a few dollars."
Both comments on this idea indicate that it is worthwhile, and thereby point out rather nakedly that the marketplace forces are not always to the benefit of the consumer and the public at large.
Why not require textbook publishers to supply, separate from the textbook itself, an addendum sheet showing all changes that have been made in the latest version of the textbook. This would enable customers to intelligently decide if they can buy a used textbook without being too far out of date. Or buy the used textbook AND the addendum. Textbook publishers wiping out the market for used textbooks is a dirty trick. It not only makes it more expensive to go to college, but also is an environmental issue. Think of all the additional used textbooks that will go to landfills. Since all book manuscripts are on computers now, it should be easy to use text comparator software to generate the addendum sheet.
Textbookr r d value of life
When can you get a job at a publishing house? My chemistry book was a new edition this year with no old editions available anywhere, and the rotten thing weighs 13 pounds (6 kg) and cost $150. This is highway robbery and a chiropractic advertisement at the same time. I would love looseleaf textbooks, or even just a set of narrow softcover books- kind of like comic books or magazines, with a single chapter in each one.
They could be in some form like National Geographic, an inexpensive narrow-spine softcover. I might actually keep them instead of trying to sell them off. I'd pay about $70 even, since I would gain the convenience of not hauling a giant book.
Hmm. What about local printers? Those books have to be fiendishly expensive to transport...