Online textbook information increases

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Students can now find more information on the KU Bookstores Web site about textbook requirements, but local private bookstores worry they will now have difficulties finding out which textbooks they need.

KUBookstore.com now allows anyone to look up the ISBN barcode needed to find the correct edition of each textbook required for summer and fall classes. Previously, students had to call or go into the bookstores to get the ISBN.

“Students have the right to this information,” said Tim Norris, KU Bookstores director. “Why not make it easily available?”

Norris said the new service would let students find out which books they need, allowing them to look online or through textbook exchanges.

pullquote

In this day and age, I think most people would prefer to go online and look at something. They don’t really need to come in and collect countless pieces of paper.

-Tim Norris, KU Bookstores director

He said it would also allow private bookstores to find which books they needed to stock. Up to now, KU Bookstores gave the private stores this information through paper printouts of the textbook requisitions that faculty provided. They are stopping this practice and asking the stores to look online.

Bill Madl, textbook director for Jayhawk Bookstore, 1420 Crescent Road, said the online listings only provided the “bare bones” of textbook information.

The listings provide the title, author and ISBN of each book. Madl that said the paper printouts that private bookstores received in the past also contained other pieces of information, such as estimated enrollment numbers and messages from course instructors about multiple editions that could be used.

“There’s a lot of nuances that aren’t going to be able to be tacked on simply through this Web site,” Madl said.

Brad Heins, store manager for University Book Shop, 1116 W. 23rd St., said he worried that the new system would cause private bookstores to receive information about textbook adoptions later than they had in the past.

“It is definitely going to cause problems in our ability to effectively get books on the shelves for the students in a timely manner,” Heins said.

Madl and Heins both said they thought the change would result in higher prices and lower buyback amounts for students.

Norris said the change would actually help the private retailers, allowing them to find textbook information online instead of going to the Kansas Union to get paper copies of the information.

“In this day and age, I think most people would prefer to go online and look at something,” Norris said. “They don’t really need to come in and collect countless pieces of paper.”

He said that KU Bookstores would update the listings whenever they received new information and that the new system would give all people equal access to information about textbooks.

“Why do they think we should pick three stores in town and make sure that they get treatment beyond what students might get?” Norris said.

Kansan staff writer Matt Erickson can be contacted at merickson@kansan.com.

— Edited by Stacey Couch

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