Book rental begins in fall

   Textbook costs keep rising but now students can save money by renting books, an emerging trend in college stores across the nation. Competing companies also offer text book rental services via the Internet.

   A pilot program with the district's book wholesaler, Nebraska Book Company, will begin in fall semester 2010, establishing book rental stations in both Santa Ana College and Santiago Canyon College book stores.

   Unlike online competitors such as Barnes and Noble and Chegg.com, the pilot program is designed to keep money coming back into the school. Director of Auxiliary Services Rhonda Langston said the book rental stations would be a way to save students money and benefit the two-college district.

   Each year the two book stores generate a combined $200,000 in net profit that is channeled back into programs at both campuses.

   Here's how it works on a typical textbook rental site: Students log on and search for their books by title, ISBN, or the author's name. Customers can choose to rent their books for 60 days, a quarter, or an entire semester. When the rental period is over students return to the site, print out a return form and mail the books back at no additional cost.

   Some students at SAC have already tried a text book rental service.

   Cynthia Camacho, an art major and a Chegg.com customer said, "I would have spent between $200 and $215 for my books if I bought them. I only paid $112 and saved $120 by renting them."

   Psychology major Jessica Padila spent $75 on one textbook and said, "I would have rented if I knew about it sooner."

   The new pilot program, called the NBC textbook rental solution for college stores, replaces a small rental program offered on this campus for the past two years, but only for Math 60 and English textbooks. The current pilot program was funded by a basic skills grant, Langston said.

   Now that college bookstores face increasing outside competition for textbook rental business, more effort is being made to promote campus stores.

   "We also added Facebook to both college stores," Langston said.