On the grapevine
Extortionate book prices
Libraries in the United Kingdom have had enough. They’re launching a campaign against extortionate licences for e-books that students need to read.
Caroline Ball | Photo: zVg
“This is creating a digital hierarchy of haves and have-nots. There are institutions that just can’t afford these prices for texts”
Caroline Ball is a librarian at the University of Derby in the UK and the co-founder of the campaign #ebookSOS. In a report published in the Guardian, she complained about the high cost of online textbooks that many students have to read. They are much more expensive than the printed editions of the same title. For example, the three-user e-book licence for a popular plant biology textbook costs her library GBP 975, whereas the printed version only costs GBP 75.
