Students at Dalhousie have limited options for buying textbooks on campus, despite the availability of textbook services elsewhere.
The university bookstore has considered textbook rental, including through Textbookrental.ca, but continues to explore other opportunities.
“Whatever book rental service we bring in, we want to ensure it will be a fair, simple and sustainable option,” says bookstore manager Tina Shannon.
Textbook rental allows students to save up to 75 per cent on books, working on a term-by-term basis.
Jeff Wagner, marketing coordinator of Textbookrental.ca, says the company has “a network of textbook suppliers from all over North America, which has allowed us to carry millions of titles.”
Students search for their books by author, title or ISBN, receive a rental price and can choose the duration of their rental.
“Students are free to use the book for the rental period, including highlighting,” Wagner says.
Shannon says the bookstore has considered the rental company because students are expressing an interest in alternative options.
“We are seeing an increasing interest and awareness in used books and our book buyback program,” Shannon says, “although used books currently represent under 10 per cent of new book sales.”
Shannon notes this number is low, but this is partially because they have fewer used books available.
Wagner thinks Textbookrental.ca has been so successful because “schools are losing market share and realize that they should be offering different options for students.”
The company, which started in 2010, is currently working with over 200 university and college campuses and plans to launch a nationwide marketing campaign at Dal in the near future.
While Dal does offer students the option of book buyback, some students find it isn’t worth their time.
Fourth-year University of King’s College student Lauren Hughes says the buyback isn’t worth her time or effort.
“They give you a tiny fraction of what you originally paid, even if the book is in good condition,” she says.
But not all Dal faculties make it easy to be economical when buying textbooks.
The Introduction to Biology 1010/1011 course has Dalhousie-specific textbooks.
Todd Bishop, senior instructor for the course, says custom textbooks just make sense.
“This model actually makes sense for some classes,” he says. “If you only teach half of the textbook, why get the student to buy it all when the publisher can give you only the chapters that you want and bind it up in a custom edition for a cheaper price?”
However, students have to buy a new textbook every third year.
“The textbook that we use, Campbell Biology, is on a three year cycle. That means a new edition comes out every three years.”
Dal’s faculties choose their course materials and textbooks and place an order with the bookstore, rather than the selection being an administrative decision, says Shannon.
Bishop notes courses are often formed around the textbooks and materials.
“We deal with a variety of publishers from such well-known companies as McGraw-Hill and Pearson to small, independent publishers,” Shannon says.
But Textbookrental.ca offers titles from these, and many others.
“We often have customers that rent novels or books for their own reading pleasure,” Wagner says. “But our main mandate was to provide students with additional options when it comes to sourcing their textbooks.”
“We want to ensure that the students of Dalhousie know all their options when sourcing their textbooks since the Dalhousie University Bookstore will not be offering a textbook rental service for fall.”
Recent Comments