NIU students should expect to pay almost $1,000 per year for textbooks depending on their major, according to a report from the Illinois Student Assistance Commission.

“Book prices are extremely high here,” said Adam Novotney, Student Association director of governmental affairs. He said he spent $653.19 on his books. Buying books from overseas would cut down on the costs; he noted, most companies will not ship the books from overseas.

Although students spend a substantial amount of money on books, prices have been relatively level. Lee Blankenship, manager of Village Commons Bookstore, said he has not seen an increase in the price of books sold in store, and they are close to last year’s prices.

From 1998 to 2003, the price publishers’ charge for textbooks has increased 34.9 percent compared to 21.6 percent for all other books, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics. College bookstores have marked up the price of their textbooks by 5.9 percent in the same period, while other books had a mark up of only 3 percent.

The University Bookstore tries to stock as many used books as they can to give students savings, said Mitch Kielb, acting director of the Holmes Student Center. He said half their sales come from used books.

Many new books come wrapped together with accessories such as study guides or CDs. Blankenship said this often drives up the cost of having a new book. Even if the professor wants the students to use only the book, they will have to buy the accessory with it.

“Publishers prevent used book sales by packaging books that are new,” Blankenship said.

Kielb said a way that prices could be lowered is by providing a questionnaire to gather information from students on how much they used the book, how much they paid and whether or not the book was useful.

“An important thing that is not being done is gathering information,” Kielb said. Students could help each other with the answers, he said.

A questionnaire is on the bookstore’s Web site, www.niubookstore.niu.edu.