What you can do about the high cost of textbooks

Choose textbooks early. The earlier you choose your textbooks, the more opportunities El Corral Bookstore and individual students have of locating lower-priced copies on the used market.
Choose lower cost textbooks. A new federal law effective July 2010 (Higher Education Opportunity Act) requires publishers to share pricing and detailed information about editorial changes between editions.
Choose open access course materials. Explore the large number of quality resources available online, from textbooks to video and more. Do your students need printed texts? There are new publishing platforms for producing low-cost print copies from open educational resources.
Create open access course materials. Join the movement for affordable course materials by contributing your own instructional materials via DigitalCommons@Cal Poly, the OER Commons, or MERLOT.

Take advantage of opportunities to purchase used textbooks early.
Get involved in the growing open access educational materials movement. Check out Open Education Week, sponsored by the Open Courseware Consortium.

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