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Textbook rental programs increase on U.S. campuses

High prices, online competition drive spike in college bookstore rental options

Textbook rentals at campus bookstores have spiked significantly this fall at universities across the country. Within the National Association of College Stores, 1,500 of 3,000 members offer a textbook rental program, an increase from last year's 300 participants.

Charles Schmidt, director of public relations at NACS, called this year the "year of the textbook rental," adding that several factors, such as subsidies from the federal government, contributed to the increase.

The 2008 High Education Opportunity Act allotted funds in the federal budget that colleges could apply for to put toward funding pilot rental programs, Schmidt said. The budget allows for $8.9 million for 2010 and another $10 million for next year.

The University has been offering rentals since 2007 - earlier than most schools - to help offset high textbook prices.

"It sends a very strong message that their pricing practices are not acceptable to most students, and we are trying to address the needs to our students by providing alternative to purchasing a new book," said Jon Kates, executive director of the University Bookstore. "What we're trying to do is to provide students with as many options as we can to combat what we all consider to be ridiculously high prices."

As a result, school bookstores have lost business to online vendors that offer a variety or rentals and sales. This has led several stores to expand their offerings so as to bring back this lost revenue, said Bruce Hildebrand, executive director for higher education at the Association of American Publishers.

"They were looking for a way to get students back in the store," he said.

The textbook rental industry, however, is not without its challenges.

"A rental program is expensive to implement because you have to buy the inventory because they're only getting a third of the price back each year," Schmidt said. "Storage is another problem - the university bookstore has to find some type of place, like a warehouse to put the books when not used. If course is only offered in the fall, the store has to do something in the spring semesters when they're not being rented out."

Schmidt added that additional difficulties arise when faculty members fail to abide by a provision to use the same book for the minimum of two years required for the bookstore to rent out textbooks. The University Bookstore, though, has partnerships with third-party companies that allow the bookstore to rent more books.

"The faculty doesn't have to make any commitment whatsoever," Kates said. "We do have partnerships with faculty in terms of textbook rentals, but as of now, the majority of books we rent are either books that we think will be used or books that we rent through a third party."

Despite potential difficulties to campus bookstores, Kates believes the heavy weight of textbook price tags on students is greatly reduced with these rental programs.

"The savings on textbook rentals are incredible compared to prices you would ordinarily pay," Kates said. "We are doing everything in our power to bring the prices down"

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