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finish up on a second hand bookshelf at campus bookstores. We need
to also understand the predicament of publishers. They need to make
profits. The more they sell the more profitable (and cheaper) the
publication may become.

Textbooks are important. They provide an important educational
support for students. Experience suggests that electronic copies of
textbooks also do not seem to be readily available – at least not in
southern Africa.

At many education institutions agreements are in place to make
use of portions of textbooks in teaching modules. Arrangements of
this nature, as a rule, tend to create a viable middle way, to circumvent
excessive costs. The question begs to be answered as to whether
arrangements of this nature, over the long run, are beneficial to the
educational process and later studies of readers of the books.
Ultimately it revolves around the intrinsic value of the printed work
and its longevity as an extension of the available knowledge of the
student.

In an era of constant communications revolutions, access to
reading material – which can be readily reduced in price, providing
it is in electronic format – should be a lot easier and also cheaper.
Having the hardcopy work is, and will remain for a long time to come,
still the most desirable of solutions. However, given the clear call for
more affordable text material, we should support solutions that can
promote the cultivation of a next generation of literate and well-
educated people in all parts of the world. The availability and cost of
textbooks should not hamper this process.