After testing a five-book text rental program this fall, 'Jacket Book and Supply has chosen to expand their rental offerings to include more than 150 textbook titles for the upcoming spring semester.

Vaughn Russom, the director of ‘Jacket Book and Supply, says the program will now provide rental textbooks for both on-campus and distance learning classes. The bookstore tested a small batch of books this past semester to make sure a larger program would be able to be supported.

“We wanted to make sure that one: the process worked…and two: that it wasn’t going to slow things down up front too much. All my cashiers say it went really well,” Russom said.

The rental process itself is very simple. Students will go to the University bookstore and look for the classes they have, along with the corresponding textbook. On the shelf tag where the book prices are shown there will be a rental line if that text is available for rent along with the rental price. Students can then take their books to the register; when their items are scanned the cashier will be prompted by the computers to ask students if they want to rent or buy the book. If they want to rent it, the cashier enters the students’ contact information (i.e. name, number, e-mail), and the students finish their transaction.

The reason behind the expansion, Russom explains, is to save money on their textbook fees.

“The difference between buying and renting depends on the book. The higher the price of the book, the better deal you’ll get,” Russom said. “The more used books I get, that helps,” he added. “The more used [books] that are rented is even better for the student. It helps them with that upfront cost so that instead of dealing with sixty bucks, you only have to deal with thirty.”

However, if students are looking for books pertaining to their major, Russom says that they may still want to consider buying them. Josh Iverson, a junior, says he agrees with the expansion of the rental program.

“It's a neat idea...the only con of it is that you don't get any money back from renting,” Iverson said. “Even so, the money you'd save from not buying the books is worth it. I know art students usually spend about half their financial aid just on art supplies, so having a little extra money from not having to buy textbooks would be nice  

This is exactly the goal that Russom is trying to achieve. By implementing the textbook rental program, students typically save a good portion of money, which can be put toward other school costs.

“I hope the students realize that we’re trying to do things to help them,” Russom stated. "There’s a reputation that they’re being ‘gouged’…but we’re doing everything we can to control the costs to the students.”

Russom's hopes are that the program will continue to expand in the fall of next year, but for now it's uncertain what will happen.

“This semester will be the key to see how it does,” Russom said.