The Auburn University bookstore is on the verge of some big changes.
According to Rusty Weldon, assistant director of the bookstore, the bookstore will be introducing two major modifications by the end of the semester to the way it sells and buys back textbooks.
The first change is the introduction of an iPhone and Android application that will allow students to scan their books and find out the buyback price without ever going to the bookstore.
"And what they can do is they can use the scanning function on the back of their Smartphone or they can type in an ISBN, and that will bring up how much your books are worth," Weldon said. "So if you're at the library at 12:30, you know you've got that app on your phone, download it, you can literally scan that ISBN number on the back of each of your books, and you'll know real-time what we're offering."
Weldon said the application will make it more convenient for students to find out the buyback prices for their books because students can scan their books from any location.
"There's just so many spots on campus that it's a walk, and if you're not carrying your books to class every day, all of a sudden you've got to load them in your backpack, walk all the way to the bookstore to find out what they're worth," Weldon said. "And we realize that if it's a wholesale value on a book, you might want to hold on to it. Or if it's not being bought, obviously you don't want to go to the trouble of bringing it all the way to campus."
Weldon said the application will also inform students of how many more books the bookstore is willing to buy back at any given time.
"It will give you warnings like, 'The bookstore only needs five more of these,' which I think is always a source of contention when everybody's taking a final and there's this big rush to get to the counter," Weldon said. "You can actually go through there and scan to find out, 'Hey the bookstore's almost full on this, it might be better if I got that to them today rather than trying to wait until the end of finals like a lot of people do.'"
The other major change the bookstore will implement is a makeover for its website.
"We've partnered with a company called Verba ... and they've created a way for us to basically show you our price, and then show you prices throughout the Internet, both that will be rental, digital, even down to the e-chapter level, where you can buy by chapters," Weldon said.
"One of the most difficult things with all the different options for students is that you've got to go to five different websites to make the best purchase decision."
Weldon said the new website design will show price options from different companies, such as Amazon, alongside Auburn's prices.
The new design will also allow students the option of purchasing textbooks from a different company without having to go to that company's website.
"And what happens if you put all of our classes in here, and say you bought one from us, two from Amazon (and) you wanted to get one digitally, you actually have one spot to check out," Weldon said. "It will take you to all three places from this site to check out, so you don't have to go over to Amazon; it's going to present the checkout pages for those to you, so literally you can get all of your books in one spot."
Weldon said the changes have been made as part of the bookstore's ongoing effort to lower textbook prices for students.
"But this, I think, will hopefully help explain to students how we feel about our role in the process," Weldon said. "We know that books are expensive, and we're fighting it tooth and nail. It's just that we realize that we can't win in every single circumstance."
Weldon said the new website should be running this week so students can use it when they register for summer classes. The application should be available in April.
"Books are just way too expensive for students to not have somebody fighting for them," Weldon said. "We talk about being a family here at Auburn. Isn't it time that students could say that part of that family was truly standing up and fighting for them?"
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