Posted 1:27 am Thursday, August 19, 2010
Textbook Rental Option For Thrifty
By MELISSA CROWE
Staff Writer
The very tool meant to help students with class is about to leave a dent in their pocketbooks.
Staff Writer
The very tool meant to help students with class is about to leave a dent in their pocketbooks.
The cost of textbooks is an issue students have grieved over for generations.
"I hate textbooks," said Queila Dos Santos, a junior at The University of Texas at Tyler who is also taking classes at Tyler Junior College. "With all new classes, you can easily spend $300 to $500."
This semester, Tyler Junior College students have an option to rent their textbooks and potentially save more than half on average, compared to buying new textbooks.
Ms. Dos Santos said she tries to find used textbooks rather than new and shops at bookstores on and off campus and online.
She has never rented a textbook before, but because money is tight and textbook prices keep rising, she said she might rent this semester.
Some publishers are making textbook packages that force students to buy new.
At College Books, on East 5th Street near Tyler Junior College, some textbooks come bundled with access to an online component costing more than $200.
For one anatomy bundle, the access code costs $145 and the textbook costs about $160.
Thrifty students might decide it makes more sense to spend the $214 for the bundle than buy separately.
"It's a way publishers ensure students buy new books," said Ann Clower, manager of the bookstore.
She has been with College Books bookstore for the past 38 years and has seen the industry and the economy change drastically.
"The cost has become unreal," she said. "We're embarrassed about it, but we can't do anything about it."
She said some customers think the store is overpriced. However, she has to hire extra help and pay expensive freight bills to ship books to Tyler.
"College bookstores only make money twice a year," she said. "People don't realize that two times a year is when we hope to make money."
She said in some cases, publishers set the price and with others, they do the markup themselves.
"When you hand students a book that costs more than $100 they are so totally shocked by the price," Ms. Clower said. She said that more and more, students are coming in to check International Standard Book Numbers (ISBNs), to do their shopping online. UT Tyler students already can rent textbooks from the Barnes & Noble website. The university's bookstore is working with the Barnes & Noble, Inc. corporate office to hopefully make the option available at the store for the spring semester.
While renting is an option for students, Robin Insalaco, acquisitions and archive librarian at TJC, said it is not as good as using the library's textbooks for free.
TJC's library shelves a selection of textbooks for students to use in the library in two-hour increments for its 1-year-old program, Book Bank.
"We started because of the price of textbooks," Mrs. Insalaco said.
That cost can end up totaling about half the cost of tuition and fees, she said. "Just as a librarian, I know the cost of books escalates every year," Mrs. Insalaco said. "The economic climate is a burden on students." The library hopes to broaden the collection of textbooks to help more students with budgets concerns.
