Barnes & Noble management at Mississippi State University said they hope to provide students with textbook rentals by the fall semester.
Barnes & Noble store manager Cecilia Brooks said the textbook rental program will be available for any Barnes & Noble college bookstore company upon campus approval.
“I will be presenting the textbook rental program at a textbook meeting with Dr.[Jerry] Gilbert and other campus officials because there is a deadline to get the system at the store if the campus agrees to start the program in the fall,” Brooks said. “If we are unable to get a response from the campus by the first week of May, the program will not be available for the fall 2010 term.”
Brooks said Barnes & Noble College territory manager Brian Stark initially presented the textbook rental program to MSU in March.
“The program is based on adjusting the commission payment that is guaranteed to the university as well as the percentage of sales that the campus receives on the textbook rentals,” she said. “The current contract specifies that 10 percent of all sales generated at the bookstore is reinvested back to the campus . there is also a specific guaranteed amount of money that the bookstore pays the campus.”
Brooks said one of the program’s main points is there is no rental limit for the course and all of the books which are on the shelf for the designated classes are eligible for rental at the same price.
“New and used books can be rented and we would not have a specific number of rental books available,” Brooks said. “All copies of the textbooks for that course can be rented out.”
Brooks said students will be able to rent books through the online system or at the store. The student will need a valid credit card as a ‘deposit’ for the textbook rental. If the student does not return the book by the end of the semester the bookstore will charge the full price of the book, plus a processing fee.
“This will discourage students from damaging books or not returning the books to the store,” she said.
Brooks said Barnes & Noble College bookstores have had great success with the 25 campus stores which offered rentals so now rentals will be available for any of our over 600 stores.
“The rental program is part of our effort to reduce textbook prices for MSU students,” Brooks said. “We are continually committed to finding ways with publishers, instructors and as a company to help students succeed in their educational goals.”
Former Student Association President Blake Jeter said it was always the Student Associations intent for their initiative textbook policy to create a robust used book market, but also put in place the structure which would allow programs like rentals to work.
“I found out about Barnes and Noble trying this at other campuses, so I inquired to Student Affairs,” Jeter said. “So I am glad that we are moving forward with the rentals.”
Jeter said the main benefit is rentals and the new policy(IHL newly approved textbook policy) provide choices for the student body. “All of these initiatives are cumulative as they give students the ability to choose a used book and sell it back, rent a book for a semester, buy one online from a website, or sell peer-to-peer,” he said. “We are definitely moving in the right direction!”
Jeter said he is not sure how publishers will react to the idea of rentals.
“Mississippi State is such as small market that any action on our level will not influence the actions of the big publishing companies,” Jeter said. “That being said, I believe as rentals become more and more prevalent, then publishers will react.I just hope it is not to continue to churn over editions much quicker.”
Jeter said it is important to commend Barnes and Noble for this action.
“The more and more we work with them, the better it is for students,” he said.
Junior Spanish major Jessica Hoffman said she think textbook rentals would make the textbook buying process a lot easier in general, but she also feels there may be some fall backs.
“I think people will probably feel like they should get some of their money back they have spent to rent it which if the price is going to be a lot cheaper it really shouldn’t matter,” Hoffman said. “Also some people who have a lot of money may be able to buy a lot of the textbooks and try to make a profit for themselves.”
Junior secondary education major Toni Johnson said she is worried the store may not have enough books to rent to students and she doesn’t know how they would deal with the issue. She does agree the rentals are a good idea, because she is unlikely to keep a textbook she has used for a class.
“I only keep the ones (textbooks) that I can’t sell back and I usually try to find someone that needs them and try to sell them to them for a reasonable price,” Johnson said. “So I probably would rent”
Brooks said the rental program is a great asset to students, but there are some hoops to jump through to get the program in order.
“The basic thing is that we can do it, all we need is the campus to agree to share the
financing of the program,” Brooks said. “A rental comparison a student can pay $100 for a new
book, $75 for a used book and if we can add rentals it would be about $45 for a
new or used rental book.”
“This will discourage students from damaging books or not returning the books to the store,” she said.
Brooks said Barnes & Noble college bookstores have had great success with the 25 campus stores which offered rentals, so now rentals will be available at any of their over 600 stores.
“The rental program is part of our effort to reduce textbook prices for MSU students,” Brooks said. “We are continually committed to finding ways with publishers, instructors and as a company to help students succeed in their educational goals.”
Former Student Association President Blake Jeter said it was always the SA’s intent for their initiative textbook policy to create a robust used book market, but also put in place the structure which would allow programs like rentals to work.
“I found out about Barnes & Noble trying this at other campuses, so I inquired to Student Affairs,” Jeter said. “So I am glad that we are moving forward with the rentals.”
Jeter said the main benefit is rentals and the new policy (IHL newly-approved textbook policy) provide choices for the student body.
“All of these initiatives are cumulative, as they give students the ability to choose a used book and sell it back, rent a book for a semester, buy one online from a Web site or sell peer-to-peer,” he said. “We are definitely moving in the right direction.”
Junior Spanish major Jessica Hoffman said she thinks textbook rentals would make the textbook buying process a lot easier in general, but she said she also feels there may be some problems.
“I think people will probably feel like they should get some of their money back they have spent to rent it, which, if the price is going to be a lot cheaper, it really shouldn’t matter,” Hoffman said. “Also some people who have a lot of money may be able to buy a lot of the textbooks and try to make a profit for themselves.”
Junior secondary education major Toni Johnson said she is worried the store may not have enough books to rent to students and she does not know how they would deal with the issue.
“I only keep the [textbooks] that I can’t sell back and I usually try to find someone that needs them and try to sell them to them for a reasonable price,” Johnson said. “So I probably would rent.”
Brooks said the rental program is a great asset to students, but there are some hoops to jump through to get the program in order.
“The basic thing is that we can do it, all we need is the campus to agree to share the financing of the program,” Brooks said. “A rental comparison a student can pay $100 for a new book, $75 for a used book and if we can add rentals it would be about $45 for a new or used rental book.”