Letter: Editorial on textbooks raises important issue

To the Editor:

 

The Herald’s editorial on Sept. 9 raises a good issue. As a scholarship student as an undergrad, I found it useful to buy printed copies of final exams from previous years, with the names of the examiners on them, from our in-house bookshop to help define what to prepare for in each course.  A later observation was that in Europe, technical textbooks have often been sold in flexi covers, whereas in the United States, the same books are more likely to be on better paper, hardbound and twice the price.  My alma mater had very good and easily accessible subject librarians.

 

Peter Richardson

Professor of Engineering and Physiology