Site offers new textbook technology

Purchasing textbooks consumes time and money -- two things most college students are short on. But now CampusBooks, an online comparison shopping service, may have a way for students to buy cheaper textbooks in less time. \nCampusBooks Mobile Book Search is a new service that allows students to compare the prices of textbooks from their cell phones. Students can text message the book's International Standard Book Number (ISBN) to the services number, 63260, and within 30 seconds, CampusBooks will text the student back with the three lowest prices available for that book and the names of the online stores that offer those prices. Students can then go to CampusBooks.com and purchase the book. \n"You can be standing in the bookstore and find out if you would be getting a better deal by buying the textbook at the bookstore or online in just 30 seconds," said Alex Neal, CEO of CampusBooks, in a phone interview. \nThis service is free, other than the students' standard text messaging charges, and it is available to all wireless subscribers, except for T-Mobile customers, which Neal hopes will be eligible for the service by the end of this month.\n"This seems like a convenient way to shop around for textbooks," senior Jeremiah Ashe said. "Everyone sends text messages anyway, and now they can be used for something worthwhile." \nThis service was launched in late August, and although it's too early to analyze usage, Neal said the company has received positive feedback from students who have compared textbook prices using the text message service. \nPaul Hazel, director of the IU Bookstore, however, has heard of this service and said he has doubts it will work successfully as one of the many alternatives to purchasing books. \n"Many times places like Amazon.com advertise a textbook for a certain price, and when you go to the Web site, you can't buy it for that price," Hazel said. "We do surveys and studies to compare our prices to other stores, and 99 percent of the time we can't find the book for the advertised price." \nCampusBooks does not sell textbooks directly but is a comparison shopping service that searches more than 40 bookstores to offer the best prices of the textbooks, Neal said. \nHazel said the IU Bookstores do what they can to offer students the best prices. \n"We're scrambling to get more used books for students, we offer more E-books and we've had shorter mark-ups this year compared to previous years," he said. \nFuture plans for CampusBooks include offering a service that would allow students to order their textbooks straight from their cell phones. That service should be available to students by next January or August, Neal said. \n"It's a good resource for students," Neal said. "Say you've procrastinated buying books until the last minute and now you're at the bookstore (and all the used books have been bought). In just a short amount of time, you can find out if it's worth buying right then or if you should order it online and have it overnighted"