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New Ways to Buy Textbooks

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With the increased popularity of multimedia technology, some students have been searching for digital alternatives to heavy textbooks. While the Internet offers online resources to rent printed books, there are also companies that will sell digital copies of the books and then have them self-destruct by the end of the term. More common however, are sites with comparative prices of printed books from various online sellers and bookstores. With the plethora of options available, some websites have developed tools to help students navigate through the resources and find exactly what they need.

A new iPhone app called Amazon Student enables students to compare the prices of printed works with other online retailers of physical and digital copies. All a student has to do is download the free app, take a picture of the bar code of any printed textbook and then the app will search for all the options available for purchasing that particular title. A similar process is available for those who wish to sell their used products. Students simply scan their old textbooks or other products and Amazon finds a trade-in value for it. The item ships for free and the money reimbursed is put on an Amazon.com gift card so students can continue to use the site in the future.

Harvard University graduates have created a site called Verba.com, a tool where students can enter in the name or ISBN number of a textbook and the program will show the prices for the book on different websites online (such as Amazon and Half.com) but more importantly, at campus bookstores. About 80 percent of students who used Verba purchased their supplies from the campus bookstores, and even if they buy through Amazon, bookstores will still make a small commission because they directed their students towards their website. This way, bookstores can keep afloat among large websites. 

As the world strays away from paper products and toward a digital age, the printed book is still quite common in today’s society. However, the tools and products available to locate them have digitized to ensure convenience and competitive pricing. 

For more information, see this article from the Chronicle of Higher Education.

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