Over the last few years, book stores and publishers have been evolving in how they offer books. Some textbooks are available electronically, and others are available for rent. Although I always try to be thoughtful about how students learn throughout the year, I find that I am especially sensitive to such thoughts when it's time to grade exams and papers. I obviously can't speak for all my fellow law professors, but I know a lot of us agree that we really like our students, and we want (and expect) them to succeed.
The cost of books matters. This article reports that students often spend $1200 a year on books and supplies, and further revealed:
Of the students surveyed, 65% said they decided against buying a textbook because of the high cost, and 94% of those students said they were concerned that their decision would hurt their grade in that course. Nearly half of the students surveyed said the cost of textbooks affected which courses they took.
This was not a law-specific survey, and I think (and hope) most law students do buy (or rent) their books. I absolutely support trying to make books more affordable, but it cannot come at the expense of content. I have taught some of my courses with all free materials, but that does not work for me in all cases.
This year, my thoughts on the learning process have turned, in part, to textbook rentals. Some (and perhaps many) students have moved on to book rentals instead of purchases. I am sympathetic to how much books cost, and I can understand why students would look for savings where they can. I am, how, concerned that rented books could have a negative impact on learning because of limits (or perceived limits) on how a renter can treat the books.
Barnes & Noble, for example, has the following book rental policy:
Rules of Renting
Textbook rentals allow us to reuse and recycle books. We hope that you return your rental textbook to us in a condition for someone else to reuse later. If the textbook is returned with excessive highlighting or writing, missing pages, and/or damaged spines or covers, you will be charged for the replacement of the book.
This seems reasonable enough, but I worry that the concern about limiting highlighting and writing in the book could serve to limit student engagement with the content. There is other language that suggests that it's not just "excessive highlighting or writing" that could be a concern. Also from the B&N website:
Treat with Care
Over the course of your studies be aware that other students will be renting the textbook after you, so please limit highlighting and writing in the book.
This is not merely advising against "excessive" notation — it is also requesting "limit[ed]" highlighting and writing in the book. I am someone who likes to write in the margins, for example, and connect thoughts or ideas with circles and lines in the text. I am also not averse to highlighting important passages. (As a side note, I get the point on truly excessive highlighting. I bought one book that had so much highlighting it was easier to pick out what was not highlighted. Kind of annoying and amusing at the same time. I was able to work with it, but I was more careful with future purchases.)
As a first-year student, I wrote every term I didn't know (or suspected was a term of art) in the margins to look up in Black's Law Dictionary. I sometimes even wrote the definition in the margin. This kind of connection with the material, I think, was an important part of my learning process. I realize not everyone learns this way, but for those of us who do, I fear that the textbook rental will limit that experience.
Obviously, one who knows they learn better by writing in books can just choose to buy, instead of rent. Unfortunately, at least some of us wouldn't know that's they way we learn until after we get started. I can't say that I would have known, anyway. My (lax) undergraduate study habits were not in any way similar to my law school habits, and I was more than five years removed from school when I went back to law school.
I don't have a great answer right now, and I have not been able to readily find any studies to support my concerns on book rentals (or allay my fears). For students, I would say to think about how you learn and consider whether a book rental runs the risk of negatively impacting your education. For educators, I think we need to keep thinking about how students interact with the learning material, and we need to be aware of, and adjust to, the outside forces that may change the student learning process. Comments on all of this are most certainly welcome.