Photo by The Chronicle of Higher Education
According to The Chronicle, "Technology and economics are reshaping the textbook market, and the book-skipping trend is just one part of the story. Because books cost so much, students are highly motivated to find alternatives to new editions. The Web has fundamentally altered how they get those books. No longer must they trudge to the campus store. Instead, they shop a global market—a vast digital bazaar crammed with options for buying, renting, sharing, and stealing books. And for many, online grapevines like Facebook and Rate My Professors are now playing a role in the hunt for bargains, too.
To get a sense of these changes, The Chronicle conducted focus groups with undergraduates at Foothill College and the University of California at Berkeley. More than a dozen students participated at each location, representing a range of majors." Read more about textbook buying.