--- Forwarded Message from Judy Shoaf <[log in to unmask]> --- >Date: Wed, 05 May 1999 19:14:30 -0400 >To: Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum <[log in to unmask]> >From: Judy Shoaf <[log in to unmask]> >Subject: Re: #4988.3 summary of responses #4924 audio cassette distribution >In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]> ------------------ Re. duplication-- I must admit that where a textbook has a CD or a small tape series (1-3 tapes) which covers the entire book, I can see why they would be ready to ask students to purchase this with the book. It simplifies matters. But it's a matter of scale--what is simple for a tape or two is NOT simple if there are a dozen or more tapes. It's seemed to me (perhaps in my innocence!) that the lab provides a very real service to the textbook companies by duplicating the tape series. After all, churning out all these copies requires expensive equipment and a good deal of labor, which the University essentially provides free to the companies and students. By providing the tapes one at a time during the term, in a convenient on-campus site, we in fact reduce the number of copies of the entire set that would have to be distributed from some more distant production site to the students (requiring also huge amounts of packaging, and shelf space from the campus store or an active mailorder fulfillment business). I assume that the textbook companies make their money back--amply--through the textbooks; the workbooks are required to do the audiotapes and there's no such thing as a usable used copy of a workbook, so the companies are directly profiting from the audio lab requirement. That said, of course we have to have permission to copy the tapes. The textbook company that provides our University of Florida elementary Spanish textbook is very generous indeed with permissions of all kinds, plus workshops on how to use their books and auxilliaries, extra copies of materials, updates on new stuff, and all kinds of support. It seems to me likely in my less innocent moments that small schools would be less likely to get these generous permissions, because they have less leverage with the companies. Judy Shoaf University of Florida Language Lab