Our Business . . .
Atlantic
Textbook Recycling is a Canadian company that purchases
surplus textbooks from University
and College faculty and
makes these books available to students at discount prices. The majority
of the books we purchase are ‘desk copies' or complimentary textbooks
sent to faculty members by various publishing companies.
Complimentary
textbooks are a marketing tool sent by publishers, as
samples, to make professors
aware of their product.
Since publishers must compete for adoption and textbooks often need
updating, new and 'revised' editions are launched frequently.
This renders previous editions obsolete and prevents students
from purchasing used books from one another.
Many
faculty members tell us that the revisions are not often warranted and
that they find the high cost of new books unacceptable. So far,
however, this has proven the most effective way for publishers
to
create exposure, promote good will and maintain a profitable share
of the market.
The distribution of complimentary
texts is not always a precise science. Professors often receive more than a few
personal copies or in an area in which they don’t teach. Books
are frequently sent to individuals who have retired or moved on.
Sometimes large quantities of a less popular edition are dispatched
repeatedly. As a result, administration and faculty become the reluctant
custodians of a surplus of complimentary textbooks. Many of these
books are redundant and ultimately sit on bookshelves collecting
dust.
Although shelved at one
school, books are often in demand at another. The publishing industry often asks that review
copies not be sold. It is legal, however, to sell unsolicited samples
and recycle them into the marketplace. Doing so effectively puts
redundant material to good use, declutters offices and greatly reduces
environmental waste. Publishers' profits are affected negligibly
by this program.
Through a network of book
exchanges, we are able to make textbooks available, at a significant
discount, to students who need them at schools across North America. In
return we provide a cash resource that is much appreciated in these
times of funding
cutbacks. Faculty tell us they have been able to purchase books,
software and other educational needs with the funds they receive
from recycling their unused textbooks. As well, we have written cheques
to scholarship funds, bursaries, university foundations and student
societies across Atlantic Canada. > > >
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