With the spring semester right around the corner, here are some ways to keep textbook costs low!
InterLibrary Loan
The University Library offers an amazing service called InterLibrary Loan (abbreviated ILL) to provide students with resources not in its collection. For no cost at all, you can request books, articles, videos, and more from a network that spans the United States. There are two main categories of availability: physical items (books, DVDS/CDS) and electronic copies (articles and book chapters). Checkout times for print books vary, but six to eight weeks is typical and some items can be renewed, depending on the providing library. Articles and book chapters are sent as PDFs that can be downloaded and kept forever. For more information, contact the Regent Library.
DirectTextbook.com
If you forget everything else in this article, don’t forget this. Direct Textbook surveys loads of online bookstores and gives you a list of the lowest prices with shipping included, whether you want your book new, used, or rental. It provides a link that routes you right to those bookstores, where you can make your purchase, and occasionally get coupons. While you can also search by title, author, and keywords, I recommend ISBN to make sure you get the right edition (this is included in the textbook information from the Regent bookstore).
Many of these bookstore sites let you create logins with your Facebook or Google account, so there’s little hassle. Some sellers do have longer shipping times, so look at that before you hit ‘Order.’ If you make a Direct Textbook account, you can create a list for each semester and avoid searching for your books again. This is especially helpful if you’re the kind of person who looks at prices multiple times before you actually buy anything (I’m definitely not speaking from experience, no siree).
Online access and subscriptions
Some required textbooks include an online component, like a Pearson’s MyLab for a science class. But you might not actually need that, so just get the textbook itself cheaply for the moment. You can find out when classes start, or from someone who’s had the same professor, whether the online access is necessary. You can’t buy them anywhere but the source anyway (usually for around $70) and it’s instant delivery so the later purchase won’t delay your progress in the class.
Amazon
Amazon has two places to buy books: new copies from regular Amazon and used-to-new copies from Amazon Marketplace. Used copies are cheaper but shipping might take longer. If you buy new print items from Amazon itself, it often provides an e-book copy while your item ships.
The best service Amazon provides is the two-day Prime shipping, especially amazing when you’re buying late in the game. Prime Student is available as a free six month trial, after which it’s $5.49 a month or $49 a year (amazon.com/primestudent). If a family member already has a regular Prime subscription, they can share that speedy shipping with you at no cost
For the people who get book vouchers:
If your voucher covers all of your purchases from the bookstore: why are you reading this article?
If your voucher doesn’t cover everything: search out your textbooks on the bookstore, calculate how many of your books it will cover, and get the rest with the tips in this article.
If you don’t know what your voucher will be and/or would like to get your books before the last minute: one of the advisory spiels I heard recently mentioned if you get a voucher because you accept more financial aid than you actually need, you can go ahead and buy your books and then reimburse yourself from the refund. Or something. See an advisor for details. They are located in Divinity Building, Suite 262 and you contact them at 757.352.4385 or advising@regent.edu. Their hours are Monday – Friday from 8:00 am–9:00 pm and Saturday from 8:00 am–7:00 pm, though they are closed for Chapel on Wednesdays from 11:45 am–1:15 pm.