No matter where the coursepacks are sold, steep prices continue to dominate student concerns. “It’s expensive,” said Tom R. Benson ’09. “I don’t know if I will read all of it.”

But Allan Powell, general manager of the Coop, said that coursepack pricing was not up to the printers.

“Pricing is based on copyright clearance costs. There are some in the public domains, but publishers will often set very large fees per page to encourage people to buy the entire book.”

Some courses have done away with local printing services altogether.

Responding to student outcry over a $464.50 coursepack, the staff of Government 90qa: Community in America, taught by Malkin Professor of Public Policy Robert D. Putnam, decided to find their own printer elsewhere, making their coursepacks available both online and at universityreaders.com, an independent seller of coursepacks.

“We did some bargain shopping and research on a number of alternatives,” said Tracy Blanchard, who works with Putnam as the assistant director of the Saguaro Seminar, an initiative at the Kennedy School of Government.

“We found that some students got upset if the material was only online, and some got upset if they didn’t get a hard copy. This way provides a way that everyone gets what they want at the least cost.”

The Coop said yesterday it would start returning unpurchased coursepacks in the middle of October, depending on when professors submitted their materials.