2008 Woodie Awards
Coming soon: Rent your textbooks
In yet another effort at De Anza to combat rising prices, bookstore pursues textbook rental program
Daniel Gamberg
Issue date: 5/19/08 Section: News
To address the soaring cost of textbooks, the De Anza College bookstore will launch a pilot textbook rental program this fall, where students can rent a textbook for a fraction of the retail price.
"Our purpose here is to serve the students," said bookstore director Jeri Montgomery.
Bookstore administrators are currently searching for the best rental system to implement at De Anza. One possible system is the Affiliate Program offered by online textbook rental service Chegg. In this program, the bookstore would receive a 10 to 12 percent commission on each student purchase. Bookstore administrators me with Chegg representatives last week, but have not yet finalized any deals.
The company hosting the retail program currently in place at the bookstore, Missouri Book Services, is offering the school an alternative rental system using a software module. The module allows the store to catalog, finance and distribute books to students.
In order for any such program to succeed, faculty members must be willing to commit to using the same textbook for a minimum of two years so that the bookstore is not stuck with textbooks it doesn't need. In addition, the bookstore still needs to break even in terms of profit and expense and the rental program might stand in the way of that, bookstore officials said.
Last winter, the bookstore's expenses were greater than its revenues, resulting in a 10.4 percent loss that must be recouped through future sales.
A number of options are available for funding textbook rental programs and lowering overall textbook costs. The San Mateo County Community College District has utilized state and federal grants to develop their nationally distinguished program.
The De Anza bookstore has networked with the California State University, Fullerton to learn more about their textbook rental program. CSUF uses a depreciating cost system to recover funds over a number of years, whereas SMCCCD purchases its textbooks with grants, funds and fundraisers and doesn't have to recover costs over long periods of time.
"Our purpose here is to serve the students," said bookstore director Jeri Montgomery.
Bookstore administrators are currently searching for the best rental system to implement at De Anza. One possible system is the Affiliate Program offered by online textbook rental service Chegg. In this program, the bookstore would receive a 10 to 12 percent commission on each student purchase. Bookstore administrators me with Chegg representatives last week, but have not yet finalized any deals.
The company hosting the retail program currently in place at the bookstore, Missouri Book Services, is offering the school an alternative rental system using a software module. The module allows the store to catalog, finance and distribute books to students.
In order for any such program to succeed, faculty members must be willing to commit to using the same textbook for a minimum of two years so that the bookstore is not stuck with textbooks it doesn't need. In addition, the bookstore still needs to break even in terms of profit and expense and the rental program might stand in the way of that, bookstore officials said.
Last winter, the bookstore's expenses were greater than its revenues, resulting in a 10.4 percent loss that must be recouped through future sales.
A number of options are available for funding textbook rental programs and lowering overall textbook costs. The San Mateo County Community College District has utilized state and federal grants to develop their nationally distinguished program.
The De Anza bookstore has networked with the California State University, Fullerton to learn more about their textbook rental program. CSUF uses a depreciating cost system to recover funds over a number of years, whereas SMCCCD purchases its textbooks with grants, funds and fundraisers and doesn't have to recover costs over long periods of time.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
cintia
posted 5/21/08 @ 10:13 PM PST
Great idea. It's a hussle trying to sell college books when they are consider to be older in the next quarter. If the teacher decides to used the newest edition;therefore, their goes my money and I just bought it new. (Continued…)
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