Jan 14
The College Bookstore is moving into its (some of its) new digs…think branded panthers, lots o’ light, and glass. Almost as post-modern chic as…let’s say…the new McCullough mail center? Now if only dearest Proctor would open so that we could munch on paninis and buy from Bookstore Bob all in one building.
Jan 13
A lot of administrators ask me, why things like MiddCal exist when there is an administrative solution in place. It’s a student-driven solution to a common student problem — keeping track of student activities on a busy busy campus. My Econ classes teach me that where there is demand, there should be supply to meet that demand. And students are finding ways of supplying solutions, when there are needs not being met.
MiddBookSearch.com is “designed as a place to trade/sell/buy books locally around Middlebury.” William Martin ’11 has created this tool out of the goodness of his own heart as a way to meet the demand for local book transactions and in particular textbook purchases student-to-student. As he mentions, the site “is meant to be used as a tool to contact others who are trying to sell the books you need” instead of actually paying on the site a la Amazon or eBay.
I stumbled upon the site a few months ago only to dismiss it as not having enough user-base to work. But now, the website with an awkward three-word title, boasts 242 books from numerous students looking to offload their books locally to other Middlebury (often student) buyers. The interface is simple and well integrated with fantastic tools like ISBN searching (which helps keep listing accurate). Search works flawlessly. Design has no-ads, no frills, just books. I often list my books to sell on Amazon or Half.com, but I’m willing to sell locally for a lower price than online because it saves me the time of shipping books across the country to buyers in Utah.
I unhesitatingly recommend MiddBookSearch.com for students to list and buy books for the Spring semester. If Middlebury is truly that tight-knit, small community we proport to be, then this type of service should be adopted and promoted widely by everyone from the SGA to the Libary and even to the Bookstore. Furthermore, students should be encouraged to persue projects like this because it solves immediate problems. And when administrators and faculty see these “startups,” they should encourge these entrepreneurial students to help improve the institutional solutions too.
Middkids are talented people and finding the right people to both brainstorm and implement solutions for our local community is meaningful. It’s one thing for students to whine about problems (like we do here on MiddBlog) and it’s another to find the right students to help build solutions to those problems. The SGA is half-way there with MiddBay.com, a more general exchange website for Midd students that has a design right out of the 90′s. The idea is there, but it lacks the implementation to make it useful. Students need to convince other students that investing time and energy to work on issues in our community is meaningful and worth it.
Nov 5
In an all-student email Bookstore Manager Bob Jansen said, “Starting with spring semester 2009, we will make our booklist available online through our Bookstore website two weeks before classes start each semester. The booklist information will contain ISBN, edition, author, title, and our new and used price. We are immediately making our fall 2008 booklists available online through our Bookstore website. Information will be provided through our Bookstore website and eventually with a link from registration to our website.”
OK, that’s the change we’ve been waiting for. Booklists online two weeks before classes allows students to purchase textbooks online with enough time to ship the books to Midd in time for the start of classes. At the same time, Jansen brings true transparency to the system by also listing the College Bookstore’s new and used price. This means that students have the immediate comparison option to buy the Bookstore books which sometimes aren’t that much more expensive than online.
Students see this as a huge win (but not nearly epic as Obama). Jansen’s early point that the Bookstore offsets the cost of the College’s expenses still hold true, but we’ll have to wait to see exactly how a theoretical drop in textbook sales for the College affects overall revenue.
Aug 27
*ding* Attention online shoppers: the Middlebury Bookstore has a new online store just in time for the coming textbook rush! Check it out: http://bookstore.middlebury.edu. It’s actually much more functional of a website than the last online merchandise store. So it should be easier for grandma to order you that Midd sweatshirt for Christmas this year.
But it’s a note in the snail mail letter stamped August 18th from Bookstore Manager Bob Jansen that enlightens us further to the Bookstore’s summer shenanigans. While we like the idea of getting money back (2-5%), the Bookstore’s “Panther Points Rewards Gift Card Program” or PPRGCP (for short) takes two paragraphs to explain and reads like a credit card offer. But not to worry, one way or another, the Bookstore is just trying to save you a buck or two for not buying your books on Amazon. You do have to sign-up AND buy a gift card though, which could prove a bit harder than simply friend-ing the bookstore AND accepting an event invitation on Facebook, like back in the day (last year). Nevertheless, those willing to go the distance and navigate the credit card language, should be rewarded.
On another note, a real zinger is carefully tucked away on page two of the summer bookstore treatise: “All books or course materials returns are for store credit only.” That’s a big deal for students who cycle through a few classes in the first week of school and like to buy the books to get a sense of the classs. That also means no more buying your textbooks at the Bookstore, checking out the prices online, and returning the textbooks to the Bookstore in favor of buying online. But really, how many of us do that anyway?
I just think we’ve always just been holding out for putting the booklists online before school starts… what happened to that SGA initiative anyway?
MiddBlog wants to know: Will your participate in the PPRGCP? Is the new Bookstore rewards program too complicated? How do you plan on buying your textbooks this year?
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