Campaign aims to end book monopolies

One organization has decided that there is a better way to control high textbook prices. … One organization has decided that there is a better way to control high textbook prices.

Campus Campaign, organized by Dan Lieberman, advocates against “on-campus bookstore monopolies” in the hopes of bringing cheaper books and better service to students.

College students spent more than $6 billion on new and used textbooks during the 2003-2004 academic year, according to the United States Government Accountability Office. Pennsylvanians alone spent $472 million.

Campus Campaign is one organization that wants to reign in that number.

Lieberman, co-owner of Dynamic Books, an off-campus bookstore at West Chester University, believes the proposed legislation, House Bill 1842, does not do enough to help students.

“While this bill may have some merit, the best way to fix the problem of escalating prices, poor service and poor selection of used books is to eliminate bookstore monopolies on campus,” Lieberman said on his Campus Campaign Web site.

He would like a bill that would force universities to make public their “book lists,” the lists of texts professors order each semester.

“This will enable students to find lower priced books at other stores or online,” Lieberman said on his Web site.

Pitt has been sharing its book list with off-campus booksellers since 1990, according to John Burns, textbook manager of Pitt’s on-campus bookstore.