By Derek Spellman
Asst. Metro Editor
PITTSBURG, Kan. —
Rental textbooks will be available to students at Pittsburg State University through a program that begins in the fall, according to the university.
The university and Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, which operates the PSU bookstore, jointly agreed to offer the program.
Steve Erwin, PSU’s associate vice president for campus life and student services, said students likely be will be able to rent new textbooks at about 45 percent of their list price.
He said that based on pilot programs that Barnes & Noble has operated on other campuses, between 20 and 25 percent of the bookstore’s total titles are expected to be available for rental, likely in many general education courses.
The bookstore has about 1,000 titles.
“We think it will be well-received,” Erwin said of the rental program, characterizing it as a way to afford students a “full range of options.”
For example, students may still purchase books if they want to keep them for further reference. A student can convert a rental into a purchase during the first two weeks of class.
PSU operates on an annual contract with Barnes & Noble, and Erwin said whether the rental program expands will depend in part on student response.
Barnes & Noble has run pilot textbook rental programs in 25 stores, including those at Ohio State University and at the University of Maryland, according to the university. Barnes & Noble considers factors that include the edition status, reuse rates both at the local campus and at other campuses it serves, and whether there are custom or single-use components in the book.
Rental textbook programs have gained ground at colleges in recent years.
The National Association of College Stores has a total of 3,000 members, according to Charles Schmidt, director of public relations for the group.
About 300 of those members offered some rental program last fall, and about 1,000 plan to do so this coming fall, Schmidt said. Much of that increase comes from programs launched by Barnes & Noble and by Follett Higher Education Group, another bookstore provider.
Schmidt said the programs run the gamut in terms of what percentage of the books are offered as rentals. Most of the time it is a “small percentage,” he said.
A number of factors have driven the increased use of rentals, Schmidt said. Online competition is one factor. The increased expense of course materials and the national economy are other factors.
A July 2005 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that college textbook prices had increased at twice the rate of inflation. Increasing at an average of 6 percent per year, textbook prices nearly tripled from December 1986 to December 2004, while tuition and fees increased by 240 percent and overall inflation was 72 percent, according to the GAO.
By the numbers
Barnes & Noble College Booksellers operates more than 600 campus bookstores nationwide, according to the company. It serves more than 4 million students and 250,000 faculty members.
