Bookstore idiots

[Can I have a cheeseburger]

As some of you may know I work at a university bookstore. Earlier this week I got a phone call from a dentistry student who said he needed a book that we appeared to be sold out of. No problem, I looked it up to see if more were coming in, but there were no more ordered. While I'm looking up the info on the computer he's telling me that everyone else in his class has the book he needs, he doesn't know anyone else in the class and can't borrow the book from anyone, but he desperately needs the book that day because his lecture is the next day and needs to get his readings done. He also says the instructor claimed the book was available at our store - which is unfortunately something a lot of instructors say regardless of whether we actually carry the book or not, leading to a lot of upset students year after year. The course he said he was in did not have any books listed in our database.

Finally, I discovered in our database that the book in question has not been carried in our store since 2005, although there is a possibility we could order another copy if it is still in print - but he refused to order another copy, he wanted it NOW. Bear in mind this is a very busy time of year for us, and I've got a whole lineup of customers waiting for help. He is asking me over and over if he can pick up the book that day. I keep telling him there's nothing I can do, and he has to talk to his instructor. He was not satisfied with that answer but I finally just told him I had other customers I had to help and I hung up. It was the first time, and I hope the last time, I had to hang up on a customer. Once they just start asking the same question over and over and I can't do anything for them and I have other customers in the store that need help, I can't keep up with the moron on the phone. I did, however, tell him I don't believe it is fair to students like him that instructors make these kinds of false claims to students, and that they require out-of-print books.

My guess is all these students got the books used from previous dentistry students.

Also, I think some instructors need a lesson in business operations. They keep claiming to students that we carry books required for the course that we discontinued carrying years ago. Perhaps they ordered the book way back in 2004 for the 2004-05 school year, but if they do not indicate to us they will re-use the book in 2005-06, all leftover copies get sent back to the publisher and we do not re-order the book. The instructors have to re-order every year and we have spent tireless hours telling them this. Simply put, if they don't order the book, we don't have it for that year.

Additionally some instructors order far fewer books than the number of students in their class. One class has about 15 students in it and only 3 copies were ordered, which all sold out immediately when we received them.

[The Last to Know]

I'm wondering if it's this way in my college bookstore - I went in EARLY and bought the books for my courses - at my first english comp class the professor told us if we bought it - return it - she hates it & never uses a book. Apparently, she didn't bother to share that with the bookstore because then it puts those people through that hassle of having to deal with the student first buying & then returning. As for a couple of my other classes - a lot of students couldn't get the book because they were sold out & had to get them on Amazon or something.
I feel bad for those working in the bookstores - I know the hours of the bookstore & I see students walking up all the time an hour or more after they close & yanking on the door, banging on it, yelling through it & trying to get past an employee who is being let out by another employee. I want to stand over there & just tell them they aren't THAT important & leave them alone.

[South Texan]

One of my professors had been teaching the same course for a few years. He always taught from the same text book. One year, his class showed up with the current edition of the text book. He freaked. He had been teaching from the same notes for the last few years, and they were based on the now out-dated edition of that book.

What would a good professor have done? Read the new book and re-written his notes to meet the new text so his students would have the latest information regarding the subject? Really?

Not this lazy guy. He required all his students to find used editions of the out-dated text book so he would not have to do any work. No book store carried it as no buy back had been allowed for the out-dated book. The students found out that some of the prior years' students still had the out-dated book, but most now were only willing to part with it for a premium price. I gave my copy of the out-dated book to a guy in my dorm.

Had this not been a required course for a major and a pre-requisite course for other required courses in that major, most of the students would have dropped it. This professor had tenure. Surprised?

[Taboo]

I'm pretty sure my college book store works the same way, too. And it's not unreasonable - otherwise they're taking a huge loss if the class isn't being offered that year or has switched to a new textbook. You'd think teachers would realize this simple logic.

I had a teacher assign an out-of-print book this year for a class - BUT he actually contacted the author, who runs an art gallery in the city, and the author secured enough copies for the class out of his private stock. We were able to buy it for the official sale price, new! He really went above and beyond.

[depechemodefan]

I remember one prof. wrote a small book on Eisenhower. He required us to buy it (it was $24, I think). One day a student asked why was the book so expensive, and when he went to sell it back the bookstore wouldn't take it. The prof. then did the cat-butt face.

Two years latter a new ed. was published, in paperback. It was 1/2 the price of the original hardback.

But obviously the prof. wanted to make money off the book.

[mattm04]

I had a prof who complained that every year the bookstore would not order enough books. I also had a fried who worked in the bookstore. For a class with 56 students enrolled the prof only ordered 10 copies, a week before classes started. Um, not the book stores fault.

[Eric the Grey]

But obviously the prof. wanted to make money off the book.

I've never had a Prof use a book he or she wrote themselves. ONE Eng Comp teacher had written his own, but didn't use it. He actually mentioned it once, early in class and that was it. I was impressed.

Personally, I think they should be banned from using their own books as a conflict of interest unless the book is made available for free under something like Flat World Knowledge.

After reading this thread, I understand a bit more about the way the school bookstore works, but it doesn't make it any easier for the student who has to wait a week or more into class in order to get hold of said book...


Eric the Grey

[Amandarthegreat]

I once had a prof in grad school that not only used his book as required reading, but also used the books of his friends and colleagues as our sole sources. All of these books, btw, were brand-new hardcover that could not be bought used (or found in our library system).

My book expenses for most semesters was less than $150 for both classes combined; for that class alone it was over $200 (7 books at about $27).

[chocoBug]

There's something unethical about professors trying to make money off the students they are paid to teach.

My graphics professor could have taught as a useful and generic way to code graphics but no. He told us to go out at buy his own £45 book that taught us his ridiculous way that if we had used it in a work placement they would have laughed in our faces. The entire class was just his self promotion. And I paid for it via tuition & book fees. Arsehole.

[IvorTangrean]

I have only ever once had to use a old textbook in college, it was for Office 2003 ( which was what the school had ).

The year, 2007.

[Ben_Who]

I once bought a book at the bookstore at the top of the semester. It was a book about a play, containing the actual text of the play as well. All the associated materials that came with the play that intellectuals lard into the edition to justify the $14 purchase price - foreword, afterword, dedication, acknowledgements, critical theories, fifteen different essays - were in English.

The play itself? Greek.

Naturally, the bookstore was sold out, and I couldn't find another copy that was the correct edition. I got a dollar edition from Borders and managed to read the actual play without any of the supplemental materials. The professor came down on me like a ton of bricks, because, of course, it was all my fault that someone had shoved a copy of the play in the original Greek on the shelf for her English class slot, and that I hadn't apparently inspected the merchandise on the day I was purchasing $500 worth of other books, on the off chance that the 1/4 of the book that contains the actual play would be illegible to me. (She was already crapping herself that it was a different translation.)

Being an English major when your parents were English teachers is an interesting experience, because not only do you own, but have already read, some of the books you're being assigned. Sometimes when you run into a teacher that has a different interpretation of the work, a discussion ensues. Most of the time, though, they just tell you to sit down and shut up, and then give you a C-.

Love, Who?

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Personally, I think they should be banned from using their own books as a conflict of interest unless the book is made available for free under something like Flat World Knowledge.

In my sociology class in college, one of the required texts was written by the professor and was basically a collection of his various political rants. Among them was an article in which he used the Green Bay Packers--who are owned by the city of Green Bay--as an example of why Communism is good.

Better yet, for the final exam, we were to assume Karl Marx was brought back to life for God knows what reason, and had a chance to read the professor's book. We were to write an essay on what his response might be.

My first choice: "Hot dog! I can still sell 'em snake oil!" I didn't go with that. I wrote down a bunch of BS and used various big-sounding words I had heard the professor use. After all, I butted heads with that guy several times in class, and yet was one of his best students as far as test scores went.

Guy taught me nothing except how to cynically manipulate the system.

[Soulstealer]

One of my old professors did use his own book in an intro class but from what I'm hearing from others it's one of the rare few that was a pretty good book for the course. Apparently it's also been used in other universities.

Now a problem I had with my old university was that many professors would take a rather long time to submit their book list every term. There were times when buying through amazon was faster than getting it through the book store, they'd post the book list as soon as they got it from the professors but it still takes time to order and such.

[BookstoreEscapee]

I only had one professor use a "book" that he had written himself; it wasn't really a textbook, though. It was two small booklets that were printed on legal size paper, folded in half, and bound with staples (like a magazine). (This was for a class called Peace and Conflict Resolution or something like that. Part of the religion department.) I believe he had them done at the campus copy shop, and they were made available in the campus bookstore for probably just enough to cover his cost of having them printed (I think they were around $10).

My college is tiny, and there is not nearly enough space in the bookstore to carry all of the books for every class. It's also in the middle of nowhere, PA, and the nearest large bookstore was Borders in Harrisburg, which was about half an hour away. Also, when I was there, it was early-internet, so buying books online was not an option. Professors had to order the books they wanted, and for a few days at the beginning of each semester the theater was turned into the textbook store, with long tables set up with all the books arranged by subject. If you didn't buy it then, you were out of luck, because very few titles (mostly for core classes or generic reference books) were actually kept in the bookstore the rest of the year.

[Can I have a cheeseburger]

Idiots of the week:

We open at 11 AM on Saturdays. We had numerous customers who managed to get inside the store through the employee entrance before that time. They all claimed they saw on our website we opened at 9 that day. What did the website say? 11. We have never opened at 9 on any day of the week.