Textbook rental programs face obstacles

Textbook rental programs at many of the nation's colleges - touted as money-savers for students - are limited by the number of available titles, publishers who release frequent new editions and professors who believe their right to choose course materials is essential to academic freedom.

About half the nation's major college and university bookstores offered textbook rentals this fall, according to the National Association of College Stores, hoping to cut the $600-$900 students spend buying books each year. That's roughly a fivefold increase from around 300 stores a year ago. But schools and publishing experts say the programs are expensive to start up and difficult to operate. In addition, there are complaints that rental prices are still too high, even though they can be as much as half the cost of a new book.

Federal lawmakers, increasingly concerned that textbook costs create a barrier to affordable higher education, have endorsed a pilot program for rentals. Twelve schools were awarded up to $1 million each under a congressionally mandated U.S. Department of Education program to create rental programs, several of them targeting lower-income or first-generation immigrant college freshmen.

In addition, a federal law went into effect earlier this year requiring publishers to give professors the price of textbooks and to list revisions to new editions; it also asks schools to release book lists early so that students can shop for best prices before classes begin. Publishers face no consequences if they don't follow the rules, however.- AP