At the beginning of this semester, the campus bookstore began offering rental and digital textbooks in addition to new and used books, a decision based on discussions between University administration and the bookstore that took place at the end of the fall semester, according to store manager for the bookstore Stacey Jackson. Senior Vice President of Administration Mark Collins, who was involved in the decision-making process, wrote in an e-mail to the Justice that his office supported the decision to offer rental and digital textbooks in order to give students more variety when shopping at the bookstore.

According to Jackson, "many, many" students have chosen to utilize the new textbook offerings and have given positive feedback toward the change in bookstore policy, which "a handful of other college bookstores" started piloting in spring 2010.

With the new textbook rental program, students are able to save up to 55 percent off the price of a new textbook, Jackson wrote in an e-mail to the Justice. "Students can write or highlight in up to 25% of the book, and need to return the book to us by May 16 in good condition," she wrote, further explaining that students can convert textbook rentals into textbook purchases during the first two weeks of classes.

Although the bookstore has offered digital textbooks for several years, this is the first semester the bookstore is offering textbook rentals.

Jackson wrote that one of the biggest changes in the bookstore as a result of the new textbook offerings is the increased customer service at the bookstore."Our staff will talk students through all their textbook options-rental, used, new, and digital -and help students determine which is the best fit for them," she wrote. She also expressed satisfaction with the performance of the bookstore employees.

Rachel Parkin '11, in an interview with the Justice, said, "I was very happy to see that they had it as an option on the website."

"If you have to pay so much for a book sometimes you don't even want to read it . so it's good for people to have the option."

Rawda Aljawhary '13, said in an interview with the Justice that she usually purchases used textbooks from places like Chegg.com or Textbooks.com because "they are really putting students' interest as the first and foremost goal."

She said that she was happy to see that the bookstore started to offer rental textbooks, but she still chose not to rent from the bookstore. "Chegg was cheaper than the school rental," she explained.


-Andrew Wingens contributed reporing.