Barnes & Noble is experimenting with college textbook rental as part of a pilot program being rolled out on several dozen campuses across the country.

The bookseller is taking a cue from sites like Chegg.com that have pioneered textbook rental and saved students and parents more than $100,000 in the process. If Barnes & Noble's program does well, it will create strong competition for Chegg.

Several years ago, Clark went on the air talking about how it's a racket when professors get paid by publishers to revise their textbooks annually and push the updated editions in course syllabi.

He heard from an angry science professor arguing that educators would be shortchanging their students if they didn't update -- because the field of science evolves so rapidly. That may be true at the graduate level, but not at the undergraduate level.

Most undergrads are just trying to decide what they want to do for a career. To make underclassmen buy an updated textbook every year is ridiculous. University presidents should enforce longer cycles on textbook updates from their professors. Except for rare instances like biotech, there can't be that many changes to rook students with new course material every single year!