Bookstore Sounding Board
One of your recent responses said: Dawn asked: I was wondering if there would be a way to post pictures of the textbooks required for a class next to the title or price of the book. At my community college back home they did this on our booklists for the majority of the books and it really helped out in trying to find the books we needed. Since I had somewhat of a difficult time finding my books and some were mixed into the wrong sections, I think it would cut down on time people spent trying to find the right book. Response: Because of your question, we have talked about posting pictures of the textbooks on or near the shelf tags. This would be an admittedly nice addition, but for the moment we have decided not to do it. The reasons are that students often don’t know what the cover looks like and that enough information is already provided to verify that the student is buying the correct textbook. With author, title, publisher, edition, and ISBN, there should be no mistake in picking the proper book. This is not to say that we won’t change our minds in the future, but for now we are not going to the time or expense of providing a photo of the book. I don't know that this is entirely true - a number of times a few people I know have ordered books online with the same ISBN as what the bookstore posts only to receive some freakish international (and possibly illegal) copy of the book that is out of date. If they'd know what the book looked like then they could have avoided this problem I think. Thanks, Bryan Fisk
Those pesky international editions play by their own rules. In addition to the possibility of getting a book with the identical ISBN but different content, you can also get a book with the correct picture on the cover but the insides are different from the book printed in the US that looks the same. There simply is a gambling element when you buy international editions of textbooks. Sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose.(Posted 1/9/2008)
Has BYU ever considered renting textbooks?
Actually we have. The reasons we do not yet offer this service are: • We aren’t set up with the technology that is necessary • We know that some faculty are not ready to commit to a full cycle of a textbook (if a new edition comes out every three or four years, they must use it for the full time) • It is more expensive to rent than it is to buy a used textbook at 75% of the new price and then sell it back at 60% at the end of the semester. Obviously that can’t always happen, but when it does, students save money over renting. We have discovered that very few universities rent textbooks, and as we talk with colleagues at professional meetings, these and other reasons seem to keep those numbers low.(Posted 1/9/2008)
Several friends from Louisiana visited the BYU bookstore and bought a beautiful lighted LDS temple. I would love to have one of these but can't find it by searching on-line through your catalog items. Can you help me identify this item so I can order one? Thank you!
Ah—an easy request. Thank you. To get a lighted temple of your very own, all you need to do is call Nicole Cox at 801-422-2831. She will order it for you and have it sent to the address of your choosing.(Posted 1/9/2008)
I think your idea of letting students know ahead of time which books they will need is brillant. The only problem is, that if you don't know let us know before 12/31/07 what books we need for winter, then that doesn't really help. Because it's so close to the time, we can't budget, nor even have a good guess, and neither can we see if we can find good deals from previous students, etc., except at a last minute rush. So, it's kind of like how it was before this. I think it's a beautiful idea, but please work on getting the info to us sooner!
GET TEXTBOOK INFO TO US SOONER!
By November 12, 2007, all of the textbooks ordered by faculty for Winter Semester, 2008, were posted on shelf tags on the text floor and also in a large printout at the information desk. That means all students had access to all textbook information eight weeks before the first day of classes. Please tell us how much sooner than 56 days early you would like the info, and we’ll see what we can do.(Posted 12/14/2007)
Why does the bookstore charge an outrageously premium price for course textbooks? Why does the bookstore not post the ISBN numbers for course textbooks books in a timely manner for students to order books from more economically sound sources? Currently, the bookstore is practically ABUSING its customers--primarily the BYU students.
TEXTBOOK PRICES
We charge outrageously premium prices so we can keep up with almost all other college bookstores in the USA, Amazon, and the publishers themselves who offer their textbooks online. All of those mark up texts 25%, BYU included.
ABUSING STUDENTS
Books which will be used Winter Semester 2008 were identified with all pertinent information, including ISBNs, on shelf tags and in a printout at the information desk no later than November 12, 2007. Quick math shows that to be 56 days before the beginning of class, or exactly eight weeks to the day. We acknowledge eight weeks to be an impossibly short time to do book shopping and plead guilty to your charge of abuse.(Posted 12/14/2007)
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