By Catelyn Dileva
Staff Writer
The majority of Mira Costa students enroll in Advanced Placement classes each year to either improve their college applications, possibly receive college credit, or to learn harder material. However, a drawback to certain AP classes is that they require students to pay a large amount of money for the textbooks. But, the library does offer to lend students, who either cannot afford the books or do not want to pay, the AP books.
The average price of AP textbooks are around 150 dollars, which is very costly if you need more than one book. Not all students can afford to buy AP textbooks so they either borrow from the library or buy cheaper books from past students or online. Although, a big problem with borrowing a textbook is that students cannot write in them.
Every AP class like AP Biology, AP Chemistry, AP Art History, and AP Calculus requires students to purchase their own book or to borrow one from the library. Even though it is helpful to borrow books from the library, students are not able to write or highlight in the textbooks.
According to junior Sidney Lee, she had to pay 200 dollars for an AP Art History book and was shocked by the price of the book. No matter how many AP classes a student takes, they have to spend over hundreds of dollars on a single textbook. It is outrageous that students have to pay a large amount of money because some students prefer to buy books so they can write it them to help further their learning.
According to AP European History teacher, Ms Annie Choi, it can be very helpful and beneficial for students to purchase their own textbook because if the student wants to write or highlight in the book, they can. When you buy your own textbook you can write or highlight in them but in borrowed books you have to use post it notes, which can be frustrating to those students.
Recently Amazon, eBay, and other alternative websites introduced discounted AP books customers can buy that are new or that have been used, allowing more affordable choices for all students who need to buy textbooks. This can help many students who do not want to pay the full price for each of their AP textbooks or borrow one from the library.
According to librarian, Ms Jane Lofton, the library does their best to stock the number of copies they think will be needed by students wanting to borrow. At times, though, projected needs don’t match the number actually needed. For some classes, the library has more books than needed; for others, there are not enough copies and the library ends up needing to order more after school starts. This is helpful to students who either can’t afford textbooks or don’t want to.
Since some students cannot afford the textbooks they need to use for class the library offers books to students who need them. There are limited amount of textbooks in the library which recently caused a mistake when getting AP books for students. According to Lofton, the library ordered enough AP Psychology books this year to cover all projected students. Then, an additional section was added last week, so the library didn’t have enough books for those additional students. The library is ordering more, but won’t have them available as fast as anyone would like. The district needs to create a purchase order and place the order, they need to be shipped from the vendor, and then the library can rely on help from my library volunteers to get them processed and ready for checkout.
For students who either can’t afford the AP books or would prefer to borrow one can borrow one from the library. According to Ms Lofton, AP textbooks are available and distributed from the library just as CP textbooks are. However, many of the AP teachers prefer and encourage their students to purchase their books so that they can write in them and keep them after they finish the class, as they would in a college class.
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