Amazon Whispernet - What is it?

[ischeriad]

Originally Posted by Alisa

Wow. When I used to buy such things, they were more like $20/each. I wonder if you get a better price because your university is selling it to you. We had to go to a private shop that had photocopying services to purchase our readers. The professors would provide them with the materials and they would put the book together.

Yes, the readers are made inhouse, there is a printing plant (if this is the correct term for Druckerei) in the university.
The most expensive (if I'm allowed to say so, given your experience) reader I remember was about 8 EUR, I think they stick quite closely to the actual production cost.

But, as I said, the quality is often not so good, and it would be very nice to have all these texts in electronic form. There is a lot of paper to be saved, too.

[edsohsmith]

I was a molecular biology major. I think most semesters I spent between US $400 and $600 on textbooks.

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by edsohsmith

I was a molecular biology major. I think most semesters I spent between US $400 and $600 on textbooks.

Engineering here, $400~$500 per semester for me in the early 90's

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by NatCh

Engineering here, $400~$500 per semester for me in the early 90's

In the US the professors supplement their income by writing text books that the students have to buy. The universities support this practice so no cheap books. They will typically revise the book every one in a while to cut off the used book market.

Dale

[ischeriad]

The most readers and books I have to buy are primary texts. Luckily, in Older German Literature there are not many new primary texts to enter the scene . I don't envy law students for example, who have to keep their collection of laws current, which are constantly changing...

[nekokami]

Educational research, here. I spent about US$120 this semester on textbooks for two classes. It would have been more if I'd had to pay for bound photocopied journal articles, which both of my classes have as required readings, but they're being distributed to us as PDFs instead. I don't print these -- I read them (and make notes) on my iLiad.