The bookstore now offers more ways to save money on books, and will have even more options in the coming semester.
The bookstore is participating in a pilot program called Digital Marketplace, which provides a database of material for faculty to select books that are either free or very inexpensive for the students.
Cal State Long Beach is one of five Cal State Universities participating in the marketplace. It is already benefiting more than 800 students, according to Rosa Hernandez-Henderson, the director of communications for 49er Shops, which manages the bookstore.
Last fall semester, 49er Shops began using Chegg.com, an online resource for cheap textbook rentals, Hernandez-Henderson said.
Through Chegg, students can look for books they need or use iPads located inside the bookstore for all book-related inquiries. According to Hernandez-Henderson, however, some students don’t like waiting for the books to be delivered.
This semester, the bookstore adopted in-store rentals. Rather than searching online, students could immediately check out books with a “rent me” sticker.
Hernandez-Henderson said 4,500 titles, including digital books and titles from Chegg, were available to rent for the spring semester.
“Students save 60 percent on average per book,” she said about renting textbooks as opposed to purchasing them brand new. “Every operation we do is focused on students. The average is $75 for a book that’s $100 on the shelf. If more professors got together and purchased the same book, then we could get them cheaper at wholesale, but for the most part, they don’t.”
Some students said they take advantage of other ways of finding cheaper textbooks.
“I usually buy mine from eBay or Amazon,” CSULB student Chad Winter said.
Hernandez-Henderson said they are doing what they can for the students by coming up with other options.
“We can’t control the prices, but we can control the options,” she said.
According to Hernandez-Henderson, digital books are becoming more readily available for students.
In addition, digital books are now available with JumpBooks, a site that provides downloadable versions of textbooks. As stated on jumpbooks.com, books are purchased at your local bookstore and delivered electronically to your computer via the website.
A new feature was also provided via MyCSULB for students to access their required textbooks. It shows all required textbooks from students’ specific class schedules and provides the bookstore’s prices with ISBN’s and all pertinent textbook information, according to Hernandez-Henderson.
She said students could expect to find a link this fall in MyCSULB that will list compared prices of the same book at other typical locations, making it easier for students to search for the cheapest supplier.
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