HPPS operates out of the science center, runs the distribution center for sourcebooks and allows students to charge the costs to their term-bills.

Cutting Costs

Davis says HPPS is working to reduce costs.

In previous years HPPS had farmed out the production process to other companies, which Davis said raised the cost of the readers.

This semester, he brought the production in house.

In addition, Davis says HPPS is a nonprofit organization and does not mark up sourcebook prices to make a profit.

"We should be less expensive than a commercial vendor," he said.

According to Davis, HPPS sourcebooks are more expensive because HPPS prints more copies than professors estimate they will need, in order to insure that there will be enough copies for all students.

"We were hearing from students that they didn't like the fact that we were only printing a small number of sourcebooks," Davis says.

As a result the cost for unpurchased sourcebooks falls upon the students who do buy the books.

Other Options

While HPPS sells most of the noncore undergraduate sourcebooks, there are some other producers as well.

Sourcebooks for core classes are produced by the Core Office independently and are sold through HPPS' science center distribution site. All the other course packs sold through the science center are produced by HPPS.

For professors seeking other options without sending their students to the Kennedy School or MIT, one possibility is the Coop. The Coop farms its sourcebook production out to Booktech, an independent producer, and then marks up the books 20 percent beyond Booktech's rates, according to Coop Textbook Manager Patrick Campbell.

These added costs make Booktech prices no better than those of HPPS.