Book rental interest grows at T.I.S.

More than 1,000 textbooks were rented this semester from T.I.S. College Bookstore, said Greg Lloyd, the store’s general manager, and the amount of interest in the rentals will keep the program going.

However, despite rising interest, not all the books in the store are offered as rentals.
Only 50 to 60 texts are currently available for rent, Lloyd said.

“In the future, there will be more titles in the mix,” he said.

There is a limited number of rental books because many of them are not going to be reused by professors in later semesters, Lloyd said.

“When we rent a book out, we are speculating that the book will sell again,” he said. “This school is particularly hard because instructors adopt new books. It’s all in the faculty members. If they would reuse more books, then we could rent more.”

Freshman Shelby Young said she was only able to rent books for three of her classes from the store.

“It saved me about $100. It really wasn’t that big of a deal,” she said.

Young also said the renting process was fairly easy, and she is not worried about keeping the books in good condition.

Sophomore Kyle Barry decided not to rent books because he bought them in the past and was not willing to change his method. He also said he did not want to deal with the longer process of renting.

“But I’ll probably look into it in the future,” he said.

Lloyd said the lower up-front cost is attractive to many students, yet some of the books are cheaper if students buy them and sell them back when the semester is over.

“The students are in the driver’s seat and figuring all this out is a challenge,” Lloyd said.

— Nathan Miller