First semester of book rentals a success

Now that the books are returned and students are finished with Spring Semester classes, local bookstores that offered textbook rentals like TIS found the first semester with the program to be successful.


"All of our students who rented textbooks returned them back," General Manager of TIS Pam Suminski said. "No students defaulted on a rental, which is very encouraging."

With such a successful first semester, Suminski said the bookstore plans to continue the rental program.

TIS began book rentals Spring Semester of 2010, which Suminski said was a great time to test the waters. The store did this to keep up with the national trend after seeing the success of online textbook rental websites.

While students do not receive buy back money at the end of the semester, students are still able to save a great deal of money.

Senior photojournalism major Jesse Irwin said she rented textbooks from Chegg.com, a popular textbook renting website.

Irwin said she was not being pleased with the money she received from buy back and first heard about Chegg.com after friends told her how much money they saved by using the site.

"It was pretty simple. All you have to do is search the serial number or book title on the site, and they sent them to you within a few days," she said.

Irwin said that while the process is very easy, she has yet to send the books back with the prepaid label because of how hectic life gets after the semester is done.

Suminski hopes that students will see the benefits in not having to mail the books back to return them.

"We see online vendors renting books and we wanted to try it out, but at TIS, it's more convenient for students because they don't have to mail it back, they just stop by," Suminski said.

Ron Sorrell, general manager of the Ball State Bookstore, said the store plans to begin a book rental program in the Fall Semester.

With the Ball State Bookstore's program, students can rent books online or in store and they can have it shipped or pick it up, just like any other Barnes & Noble purchase.

"It's a matter of giving the student their choices," Sorrell said.

Sorrell said the Ball State Bookstore buys books back for 50 percent of the purchase price, if the professor has ordered it for the following semester. However, is the book has not been ordered or is out of date, the bookstore offers a lower priced, which is set by the national wholesaler.

Sorrell said students don't understand the benefit of buying from the Ball State Bookstore and the fact that they can buy, rent and purchase books and e-books online.

The only extra step to renting is providing a credit card in case the book is not returned properly. Other than that, the process will be seamless for students, Sorrell said.

TIS is working to expand its rental list and availability of digital textbooks this summer, and the Ball State Bookstore is getting ready to launch its rental program in the fall, but both stores understand that it's about saving money and having more choices.

For more information on book rentals, visit the Ball State Bookstore website at bsu.bkstore.com and TIS at tisbookbsu.com.
 


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