To the disappointment of staff and students alike, the textbook rental program at AVC has been delayed until at least the spring semester.
The program’s software, which had been set for release this past June, arrived at the AVC campus on August 6, causing its fall debut to be nearly impossible. According to AVC bookstore manager David Moyer, nearly 85 colleges had been planning on loaning textbooks this fall.
The program, made possible by the Nebraska Book Company (NEBC), offers an alternative to buying textbooks. Students can rent many of the required texts for a considerably lower cost than buying them new or used. While used books are normally marked down 25% of their new retail price, the cost of renting a book will be about 30% to 40% of a book’s new retail price.
Though this can save on out-of-pocket costs, it is not necessarily the cheapest. If, for example, a used book was bought for $75 and was sold back to the bookstore for $50 (1/2 of its retail $100), the net transaction would cost the student $25. If the same book was rented, it may cost the renter $30.
If you find that it would be less expensive to buy the book and sell it back to the bookstore at the end of the semester, please beware: not all textbooks can be returned. Only texts which are the correct edition and have been requested for the following semester will be bought back. About 20% of used texts are not used the following semester, according to Moyer. Thus, an extra $5 or $10 may be worth avoiding a risk which could cost you ten times as much.
Before you begin calculating next semester’s textbook rental costs, be aware that not all required books will be available through this program. Courses that have high total enrollments, such as introductory biology or psychology, will be included, but those with enrollment less than roughly 50 may not be. Since the bookstore gets a lower profit per book through the rental program than through sales, renting books to smaller classes isn’t cost-effective enough to warrant their inclusion.
By implementing this program, the bookstore hopes to compete with online stores and sellers. The benefits of renting, according to Sue Reidman of NEBC, include getting the correct edition of the correct book, having access to customer service and no shipping fees, and the ability to get the book on campus. You can also be assured that you will save a considerable amount on out-of-pocket expenses.
One last drawback to this program is, of course, that books must be returned at the conclusion of each semester. If you might be interested in keeping the course books, it may be advantageous to look for a book source elsewhere: online, corporate bookstores, library book sales, locally owned bookstores that offer book buyback… well, we can hope.
Look for the advent of the textbook rental program next spring.
-By Emma Goldman
