U.S. College Book Price Information: 2017

In 2017, the average price for books in the Humanities, Sciences, and Social & Behavioral Sciences decreased almost 3 percent to $72.67.

Posted on March 30, 2018 in Special Features

By Narda Tafuri
Associate Professor and Coordinator of Technical Services/Acquisitions Librarian, Weinberg Memorial Library, University of Scranton

[Ed. note: This report, the latest in Choice’s annual college book price studies, originally appears in the April 2018 issue of Choice Reviews and is also available, along with previous years’ studies, on ChoiceReviews.org.]

This 2017 U.S. College Book Price Index updates last year’s compilation, which covered 2014 to 2016 (CH, April 2017). For 2017, the overall average price for books in the Humanities, Sciences, and Social & Behavioral Sciences (including reference books) was $72.67, a relatively small decrease of -2.80% over the average 2016 price of $74.76. Reference books continued to have the highest average price at $133.66. Excluding reference books, the average 2017 book price was $69.08, or a -2.59% decrease over the average 2016 price of $70.92.

Data for the index was compiled from 5,245 reviews of books published in Choice Reviews during 2017. An additional 25 print titles reviewed in Choice Reviews were omitted from the analysis due to price ($500 or more) or because pricing was only available by contacting the publisher. These books were removed from the analysis so that the average prices were not skewed. As with the “North American Academic Books: Average Prices and Price Indexes” data, which appear annually in the Library and Book Trade Almanac, this index includes some paperback prices; as a result, the average price of books is less than if only hardcover books were included.

Table A reports the number of titles, dollar amounts, percentages, and average price for books in each Choice Reviews subject category for 2017. The percentage of titles and total cost for each broad subject category remain consistent each year.

Table B, “U.S. College Books: Average Prices and Price Indexes,” contains average price and indexing information for the years 2015 through 2017. The index base year has been reset this year to 2010. Previous instances of this table have an index base year of l989. The base year was reset to facilitate the comparison of the rates of inflation between the other book indexes appearing in the article “Prices of U.S. and Foreign Published Materials,” which is compiled and prepared by the Library Materials Price Index Editorial Board of ALCTS, and is available here.

Table B also contains the percentage change between 2016 and 2017. The average 2017 price for Humanities titles decreased by -1.83% over the previous year. The average price for Science & Technology titles decreased -5.98%, whereas the price for Social & Behavioral Sciences titles decreased by -2.26%. Since 2010, there has been an overall book price increase of 9.66% when reference books are included.

Calculated separately, the average 2017 reference book price decreased -2.71% over the previous year. The overall price of reference books has seen fluctuations in pricing over the past several years. Compared to 2010, there has only been a slight .16% increase in the overall average price.

The decreases noted this year in the different subject categories were foreshadowed by School Library Journal’s annual online article: “Average Book Prices for 2017,” which appeared on their website (www.slj.com) on March 6, 2017. It was stated that the average book prices for Adult Titles in the categories of Trade Hardcover Nonfiction and Mass-Market Paperback showed price declines when compared to last year. The 2017 average price for Adult Trade Hardcover Nonfiction was $28.16 compared to $29.16 in 2016, a slight decrease of -3.43%. The 2017 average price of Adult Mass-Market Paperbacks was $9.44 compared to $9.51 in 2016, a decrease of -0.74%. Other prices showed only slight increases, or in the case of Adult Nonfiction Trade Paperbacks were flat ($19.72). Data for this report was supplied by Follett.

A review was conducted of the U.S. College Book average prices for the main subject categories and reference in 5-year increments from 1985 through 2015; and then a yearly analysis from 2010 through 2017. The percent of change in price was calculated for each category.

It is significant to note that over this 30 year period (see figure 1) the subject category of Humanities has seen greater price increases (147.58%) than the Sciences (83.97%), with increases for Reference being the highest (154%) followed by Social and Behavioral Sciences (150.72%). In 2015, the average price of books in the Humanities, Sciences, and Social and Behavioral Sciences were within approximately one dollar of each other. Overall, the subject categories, including Reference, have increased by 131.84% over the thirty-year period.

Prices throughout all of the subject categories have seen steady increases up to the 2000s. However, more recently, prices appear to be fluctuating slightly from year to year (see figure 2). The largest increases from 2010 to 2017 appear to be in the category of Humanities, which increased in price by 15.58% during that time period. The last four years (2014 to 2017) have seen the greatest fluctuation, with overall prices for 2017 at $72.67, which is a slight decrease of -0.91% compared to the overall price for 2014 at $73.34. The overall price for 2017 ($72.67) only saw a minor increase of 0.50% compared to the overall price of 2015 ($72.31).

These indexes and the accompanying information have been prepared under the sponsorship of the Library Materials Price Index Editorial Board of the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services, American Library Association. This price index will also appear in the 2018 edition of the Library and Book Trade Almanac.

About the author:

Narda Tafuri is Associate Professor and Coordinator of Technical Services/Acquisitions Librarian at the University of Scranton’s Weinberg Memorial Library.

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