Out of Print

That $22.50 allowed by the G.I. Bill for books sounds like a signal for a shopping spree, but after two weeks of combing the Square, students have taken to beating their neighbors to Widener in the morning to snatch one of the two copies of their assigned books off the reserved shelf. The shortage, and in some cases, non-existence of required college texts, is not the fault of any one particular group, and can be attributed in large part to rapid demobilization, causing an unexpectedly high enrollment during the spring and summer terms. In spite of the fact that publishers are now fully awake to the unprecedented demand, local book dealers do not expect any marked improvement before next spring.

Some confusion might be prevented if instructors would furnish book stores with extensive lists early enough before the beginning of the term to make as many books as possible available when classes start. Furthermore, House libraries should spend their library funds on books which are required in the larger "middle-group" courses.

Beyond that, an incentive should be provided to students to sell back their course books which they do not particularly want to keep. Phillips Brooks House has a rental library from which students can borrow books for fifty cents a term, but few people are going to donate books gratis, and the 35 or 40 per cent return offered by the local dealers creates no great literary market. If a list of the required books for next fall were published by the Veterans Bureau, or possibly PBH, and the Bureau were to pay the student up to 70 per cent of the original cost, a pool of books could be built up, for which the veteran would be charged under the GI authorization only enough more than the turn-in price to take care of overhead costs. Obviously if the government is doing the paying, no one is going to buy secondhand books if new ones are available, but until that time when enough books are on the market, such a turn-in system would do much to alleviate the critical shortage of the next eight months.