Give Us ISBNs

Next semester, students may not have to risk being kicked out of the Coop to get the ISBN numbers of their textbooks. In its meeting last week, the Committee on Undergraduate Education (CUE) discussed a proposal to create a database, the Harvard College Book Information System, where students could find the ISBN numbers of each book on every course syllabus. We wholeheartedly support such an initiative, which would make it easier for students to comparison-shop online and save money on their books.

Although the Coop provides the conveniences of centralization and proximity, its virtual monopoly on ISBN numbers of books used in College courses is not one that Harvard administrators should protect. Currently, professors submit the ISBN numbers to the Coop, but those numbers are often unavailable to students in the course and cannot always be found through the HOLLIS catalog.

Students should have the opportunity to obtain their books as inexpensively as possible. Textbooks typically cost a student hundreds of dollars each semester, and the Undergraduate Council (UC) has estimated that open access to book information could collectively save students as much at $1.3 million each year. Student efforts to compile this information have repeatedly been blocked by the Coop management, which has even called the police to stop students from writing down ISBN numbers in the store. University Hall’s involvement will thus come none too soon. The CUE is in a far better position than students to request textbook information from professors; the weight of its position should expedite what has until now been an entirely student-based initiative.

While the wider availability of textbook data will undoubtedly affect the Coop’s bottom line to some degree, this is not a reason to stifle the information. The Coop will still offer the convenience of having textbooks centralized in a single, nearby location, of which some students will continue to take advantage.

Some concerns have been further raised that another valuable service of the Coop—reminding professors to get their book lists together on time—would be undercut by a Harvard textbook database: As Assistant Dean of the College and chemistry lecturer Logan S. McCarty told The Crimson, “A service the Coop does is hounding us.” It is not clear that the Coop would stop hounding professors as long as it continues to carry textbooks, but the CUE will have to establish its own mechanism to obtain ISBN numbers from professors in a timely manner. This is part of organizing a Harvard textbook database, and not an argument against it.

As we have argued before on this page, students should have open access to information about their textbooks. Because books are often cheaper from vendors other than the Coop, it is especially important that students, who are often on a tight budget, be given as much opportunity as possible to hold down text-related costs. Though student efforts to make textbook information available have thus far been met with resistance, the College’s recent involvement is welcome. The sooner ISBNs are openly available the better.