Hiya folks! When I arrived at my current job as a full-time faculty member at the local community college, I was shocked to find that every so often individuals pop by my office asking to buy my old textbooks. Some of them are quite pushy. One individual even went so far as to step in and start checking out my bookshelf. Most of them simply leave when I tell them I don't have anything. A while back I posted a comment about the situation on my Facebook page, to which some of my friends weighed in on the situation. From what I understand, there's no policy at my school which states I can't sell these books, and from what I understand, some faculty members do it and either keep the money for themselves or give it to the scholarship foundation. I was curious about what other people's thoughts were on this topic? After reading some articles online, it seems like this practice may be illegal in some states, but then others suggest it depends on how the book was received (solicited vs. unsolicited). I've definitely received my share of unsolicited books. I probably get a box at least once per week with a book in it. I've also requested my share of books to review them for use in a future course. My stack has definitely started to pile up, and I need to do something with them. What practices do your institutions use? Are there laws about this in your area? What are you thoughts on the topic? Thanks! Matt
Rutgers has a policy on this issue, which includes a review of policies at other schools. Their recommendations: TAA in Point 4 is the "Textbook and Academic Authors Association", which would obviously prefer that everyone pay retail prices. The solicitation policy in Point 5 bans commercial solicitation on-campus without permission. Your school may well have such a policy, although it may not be strongly enforced. There is particular concern about reselling of instructor copies of textbooks, which have the answers to the problems in the student versions.
If these books are your property; I don't see anything wrong with the regulation nor ethics. However, if these books are part of the school's property. Then definitely it is wrong to resale them.
I do sell unsolicited books and use the money to support either student organizations or the occasional student with an emergency situation.
Not only would I sell them, I used to work for a school where publisher representatives would have occasional book fairs in my building for faculty members. At the end of the day when there were still plenty of books left over that faculty members hadn't wanted, I went in and said to the reps, "Hey, mind if I take them?" The lady said sure, it was less she'd have to carry down to her car. Next stop... Amazon! Now, if I asked for the book and was sent one on specific terms, then yes, of course I would abide by those terms. But unsolicited? Or given without terms? Anything goes. (And Rutgers can take their policy and stuff it. Just because most academics reflexively oppose profit doesn't mean it's wrong to make one.)
I've heard that some schools do consider unsolicited books to be their property, if they are mailed to your school address. In that case, the unsolicited books are considered to be the property of the academic department -- not the individual prof. So you are supposed to turn them over to the dept. secretary, not resell them. Sort of like companies who make you hand over the frequent flier mileage that you earn while taking business trips. Don't know how rigorously this is enforced, or what the dept. eventually does with all the books.
I can assure you that many for-profit companies -- especially publicly-traded ones -- have exactly the same kind of policy that Rutgers does. Big companies that solicit competitive bids from vendors or subcontractors don't generally allow their employees to accept large unsolicited gifts sent by those vendors or subcontractors (for reasons that should be obvious). The definition of "large" varies. But given the current cost of textbooks, I could easily see several unsolicited textbooks having a value in the hundreds of dollars. Accepting hundreds of dollars worth of free gifts from a vendor would be a major "NO" at companies that I've worked for. And in my experience, employees of state agencies face even more restrictive policies than employees in the private sector. Note that Rutgers is a state school.
My $0.02 I resell anything that is sent to me unsolicited. If I ask for a copy, I don't resell until it's two editions removed. In other words, if I'm using 5th edition, I may sell my 3rd edition if I haven't donated it to a student. But most of the time, it has no value then. I keep old editions on hand to lend to students and I also place a current copy at my CC library for reference use. If it's unsolicited, I sell it ASAP. What I hate are the texts that are sent to me unsolicited that say "Instructor's edition - please don't resell to keep student costs down" Then why the heck do you send it to me??? One promenient person in my field does this and I hate it. No, I'm not going to use your text no matter how many you send to me. I have donated to a local prison program that wants texts, no matter how old. I give them the "do not sell instructor edition" books.
I can understand not selling instructor editions that have answers to problems in them. As a history guy, most of the junk I get is identical to the student version, with the small exception that is says "IE" on the cover. I haven't sold any, but I was kind of thinking the same thing. If publishers are worrying about costs, why are they sending so many out? -Matt
