Bookstore offers students the option to rent textbooks

August 12, 2010

Cincinnati State students will have a new option starting Early Fall Term for acquiring textbooks. They’ll be able to rent certain books, rather than buying them.

Pictured: Textbook manager Laura Smith inspects some of the titles that will be on the shelves when students come back for Early Fall Term classes.

The attraction is at the front end: a rental textbook, on average, costs about half what it would take to buy a new one, according to Laura Smith, textbook manager for the Cincinnati State Bookstore (which is operated under contract by the Follett Corporation).

Students, of course, can typically sell back a purchased textbook – sometimes for as much as half of what they paid for the original. But renting has proven a popular option at Follett bookstores on campuses across the country, Smith says, because it lowers the initial outlay for students.

Follett has about 800 campus bookstores in the U.S., and nearly all of them now offer textbook rentals. Here’s how the program will work at Cincinnati State:

• Students must be at least 18 years old, with a valid credit card, an e-mail address and a driver’s license/state ID, and be willing to sign a rental agreement stipulating the books will be turned in by a specific date. (If the book is not turned in, the credit card will be charged a non-return fee plus a processing fee.)
• Students will have the option of buying a rental book if they wish.
• Acceptable payment includes cash, credit card or financial aid.
• Students may preregister for the rental program at http://www.cincinnatistate.edu/on-campus/bookstore or www.Rent-a-Text.com

Returned rental textbooks may have normal wear and tear, Smith said, as well as normal highlighting – the same as a purchased textbook that is submitted for repurchase. 

Some types of textbooks are not eligible for the rental program. Among them:

• Consumable (single use) materials
• Bundles and packages that contain consumable materials that are not available separately
• Loose-leaf and other unbound materials
• Editions at the end of their lives

Instructors who are planning to use a book for four terms and do not see the title on the national list, and who wish give their students the option of participating in the rental program, should contact Smith or bookstore manager John Dietz (both at 1507).