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MIAMI—The Barnes and Noble at Florida International University will launch a pilot program during the spring semester that offers students the option to rent a textbook at a discounted price.
In addition to having the choice of buying a new book at full price or a used one at 75 percent of the cost, students also will be able to rent some textbooks at 42.5 percent of a new book’s retail price. For example, if a new textbook is priced at $100, a used book would cost $75 and a rental would be available for $42.50 for the semester.
“We realize that textbooks are an added expense for students every semester,” said Assistant Vice President Business Services Jeff Krablin. “We hope this program will give students more options to help cut some of the costs involved in pursuing a college degree. If it is successful during the spring semester, we hope to expand the program to include more books.”
The pilot program will include 50 books available for rent. The rental period will begin the day a student pays for the textbook rental and runs through the last day of finals. It must be returned in good condition, although some highlighting is acceptable.
To see if a textbook is available for rent, students can visit fiu.bncollege.com, enter their course information and select the option to either buy a new book or purchase a used one. A choice to rent will appear if the book has been selected for the pilot program. Students can also visit the FIU bookstore.
A list of frequently asked questions can be found at http://fiu.bncollege.com/docs/FAQ_TextbookRental_nonEauClaire.htm.
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This is a smart idea for more than one reason. It's great for students to recieve a lower payment option in these hard economic times! Especially for students like myself who are paying out of pocket. It's also a great way to move books off of the bookstore bookshelves instead of having them collect dust while students seek lower prices online. After calculating shipping and handeling, it may work out to be the same price as the book store rental, which would greatly encourage students to go directly through the bookstore. This will open a whole new consumer crowd.