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<div dir="ltr"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; "><pre style="line-height: 17px; white-space: normal; ">A couple of months ago I posted a bit of news that Oregon's textbook cost reduction taskforce (a subsidiary of another group, HECC- Higher Education Coordinating Committee) was looking at some ways to get higher education textbook costs down. One of those was adopting a law that for every X number of textbooks a college bookstore ordered (say 50), the publisher would be required to donate 2 to the campus library. This would build up the college library's reserve collection, and give students access to textbooks at minimal cost to them or the college. </pre></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: monospace; line-height: 17px; ">Well, it turns out that there is a clause in that pesky U.S. Constitution</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42); "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif"> (the 5th amendment, to be precise) </font></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: monospace; line-height: 17px; ">called the "takings clause." It says that Government cannot just </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: monospace; line-height: 17px; ">take things from private individuals or businesses. It has to buy them. And saying "If we </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: monospace; line-height: 17px; ">buy 50, you HAVE to give us two" would be a taking. And the Supremes have consistently ruled that since the adoption of the 14th amendment and its equal protection clause, the states are bound by this as well.</span><pre style="line-height: 17px; white-space: normal; ">We can negotiate, "If we buy 50 from you, would you give us 2<br style="line-height: 17px; ">freebies?", but that could not be mandatory.<br></pre><pre style="line-height: 17px; white-space: normal; ">The textbook taskforce is recommending to the HECC that further study be conducted on how library reserves can be used to lower textbook costs by providing an alternative. At this point it is only a recommendation for future study. A full report from the taskforce is due in November. If there is anything in it of interest to libraries, I'll pass it on.</pre><pre style="line-height: 17px; white-space: normal; ">Tony Greiner, Portland Community College Library</pre></span>**tony_greiner@hotmail.com**</div>
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