Ready to burn those textbooks? Why not Swap them?
Finals. It’s enough to make you pull out your hair. Or burn your textbooks. But we’d really prefer you do neither. On the hair front, it’s cold, don’t make it colder. But as for those textbooks…why not make some money out of all this pain?
ASM’s Textbook Swap is back once again, new and improved, thanks to the work of the Academic Affairs Committee. Chair Jonah Zinn and Co. have built a sweet new online system to keep track of the textbooks for sale, and there are more dates to drop off those textbooks.
Preliminary book drop-offs are just days away. You can leave books you want to sell with Swap staff on Dec. 21 and 22 from 12:00 to 3:00 p.m. in the Caucus Room on the fourth floor of the SAC. After break, the Swap shifts location to Memorial Library, where staff will set up shop in room 116. Students who wish to drop off books for sale can do so from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 16.
Be sure to come out to buy next semester’s books on Sunday, Jan. 17th. On average, Swap prices are 35% less than the University Bookstore’s. Be sure to bring your booklist (including ISBN numbers) when you are ready to purchase.
Students who dropped off books can pick up their money or unsold books on Monday, January 18, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Save money. Get rid of the old books, get the ones you need. Without paying the middleman. It’s a beautiful thing.
More on the Swap here: http://www.asm.wisc.edu/academic-affairs-committee.html
Also, Jonah reports that the Swap is sorely in need of volunteers. If you’ve got some time next week or after break, hit him up with an email (jzinn@wisc.edu).
aliciayager4
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asmpressoffice
Friendly Neighborhood Press Office Director
ASM: The Student Voice 
It’s great that ASM is taking on the problem of high textbook prices. That said, ASM’s efforts might be even more effective if it looks at ways to bring concerted pressure to bear on the publishers who are solely responsible for the high retail price of textbooks. In a nutshell, publishers set prices high because they can, pure and simple. The absolute best way to substantially reduce prices is give publishers a compelling reason to sharply lower their list prices and/or negotiate larger discounts to campuses. Right now, they have no such incentive, because no one has taken the initiative to give them one.
For more on the subject, see here: http://siftingandwinnowing.org/2007/12/18/textbooks-and-the-free-market/