“We went and visited Miami University to look at how it was being offered there,” said Jennifer Kostic, associate provost. “Through the process (eCampus) emerged as the one and only choice because they offered such great options for our students. Our thought was, if we weren’t going to have book (stores) on campus, we wanted to make sure students could get books quickly and with not an additional charge.”
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The new provider will have the capacity for students to participate in buybacks, sell their books to other students in a virtual marketplace, purchase used books and rent books. eCampus and its warehouse are headquartered in Lexington, Kentucky.
Shelves in the current Sinclair bookstore are almost bare as the space is prepared to primarily sell course supplies and other merchandise.
“It will become a ‘campus’ store,” Kostic said.
A second satellite textbook store for Sinclair, located across from Kings Island, had previously shut down due to inactivity.
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“I know last semester some students had a hard time actually getting books because (the bookstore) ran out,” said Katie Brennaman, a psychology student set to graduate in the spring. … “We probably wouldn’t run into that problem. And then, financial aide can tie into it if it’s all in one location it’s easy to (compare). All in all I think it’s positive.”
Gabriel Brausch, a sophomore mechanical engineering student, said he preferred having the option between shopping online or first, seeing the physical textbook before making his purchase.
“I’m teaching a current class and I’ve (received) two comments—they love the shipping because they hated standing in line at the bookstore (and) they love the ability to rent,” Kostic said. “I thought for sure they would all be interested in the digital downloads but a lot of them still want the hard copy book, but they don’t want to keep it.”
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Many university and college classes now require students to purchase online access codes with the textbook so that students can complete online course work. To address this, Kostic said eCampus is working with professors and publishers to get a full list of all access codes Sinclair courses need, then researching to see if students can just buy access code so that purchasing used books can still be an option.
“Students really couldn’t take advantage of rental or a wide, used books market,” Kostic said. “When we ran our own bookstore, students on financial aid really only had one choice— which was the bookstore. Which meant in most cases, they had to buy a brand new book. Now students who are on financial aide have all these affordable, flexible options. Most rental books are 80% less than a new book.”
In the future, Kostic said an eCampus representative will be stationed in the current Sinclair bookstore to help facilitate book pick-ups, last minute book orders and help students acclimate to the new provider.
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