49er Shops, which operates the University Bookstore, is taking steps to provide affordable options for students, specifically expanding the accessibility of e-books and rentals, due to the high costs of textbooks.
Cal State Long Beach freshman Brittany Chavez said that buying textbooks from the bookstore wasn’t always the most cost-effective plan, so she turned elsewhere for affordable prices.
“I bought a book at the bookstore for $132 … I returned it, and I bought it online for $60,” Chavez said.
According to Rosa Hernandez-Henderson, director of communications for 49er Shops, the bookstore is part of a nonprofit organization with the priority to make course materials accessible and affordable to students.
“All the money we make goes back to the campus,” Hernandez-Henderson said. “We’re completely self-funded.”
She also explained that, on average, if the bookstore is selling a textbook on the shelf for $100, it costs 49er Shops $75, not including the labor and transportation it took to get it there.
In fall 2010, the bookstore began offering rentals through Chegg, and has expanded the program through partnerships with Barnes & Noble and Pete’s Cheap Rentals, among others. Approximately 60 percent of books available at the bookstore now have rental options.
Students can find their textbook options, including buying and renting both physical and e-books, by course on the University Bookstore’s website. CSULB is also participating in the Digital Marketplace program, which creates a database of digital materials available to multiple CSU campuses.
“[The bookstore] is going through an evolution right now,” Hernandez-Henderson said. “As more technology comes out, students are going to adapt to what’s comfortable for them.”
49er Shops is also working with CSULB faculty to save students money by using the same edition of a textbook for as long as possible, although this can be hard to implement, according to Hernandez-Henderson.
“We respect that they’re the experts in their fields … they know what’s effective for their students,” she said.
The campus community’s reaction to the bookstore’s efforts and the growth of alternative textbook options are mixed.
“In terms of the costs of books, I understand how the publishers come up with their pricing,” history professor Gregory Beirich said. “The cost of books is not the bookstore’s doing.”
Beirich also said he understands that e-books are here to stay, but that he personally prefers “to hold them and read them.”
Some students, like junior women’s gender and sexuality studies major Kelsey Brown, have mixed feelings regarding the use of e-books.
“Any books I really like or will be using for a class, I want a physical copy of to highlight and take notes in,” Brown said. “I would probably switch to e-books, if they were significantly cheaper, given their portability.”
Brown has also saved money renting her textbooks instead of buying them.
“I’ve rented from the bookstore, when I know the books aren’t ones I’ll want to keep,” she said.
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