Packages stacked as tall as students have backlogged the South 40 mailroom, preventing many from receiving the textbooks they ordered online. Mail Services Manager Peggy Smith attributes this delay to an overwhelming number of students ordering books online at the start of the semester.

Though few students have caught on, they no longer need to lug around heavy backpacks filled with textbooks. Electronic textbooks (e-books) are now available for a number of classes. Despite a 30-50 percent savings in textbook cost, less than 1 percent of students are using this alternative textbook.

Though buying books for a new semester still means lugging around a heavy basket in the basement of Mallinckrodt, the load is easier on some students’ wallets this year thanks to a new program that gives students the option of renting their textbooks instead of buying them.

Classes have begun, and buying textbooks is on everybody’s mind. There is an easy and convenient way to take care of it all at once: the Campus Bookstore. Purchasing books is certainly simple. There is, however, a downside: the bookstore is very expensive.

The conservatives have won another battle in Texas concerning student textbooks: On an 11-4 vote, a new standard for textbook drafts were released recently, and it has caused quite a stir.

Textbooks have just made the transition into the 21st century, as more and more are jumping online to become e-books. Now, the Danforth Campus Bookstore, managed by Follett Higher Education Group, is following the national trend by offering students this up-and-coming textbook option.

Like clockwork at the beginning of the year, there appears in every university’s newspaper an editorial or two about textbooks and their extremely high prices. Generally, there are some suggestions about ways to make the books cheaper or ideas that would otherwise purport to save students money. I love the optimism, I honestly do. I [...]

The sight has become familiar: In late August and early January, we become accustomed to students walking across campus, laden with white-beige campus store bags. The act has become ritual: Every semester, we find ourselves in the lower level of the campus store, carrying red baskets and meandering through aisles until we’re 50 pounds heavier [...]

In response to growing concerns about high textbook prices, Missouri Governor Matt Blunt passed a bill that will require textbook manufacturers to be more transparent in their pricing. The bill, passed on Jun. 25, goes into effect on Aug. 28 and will force textbook manufacturers to publish precisely what information has been changed between revisions [...]