Bookstore plans to introduce new textbook rental program
Zoe Deno
Staff Writer
Starting next semester, Hudson Valley’s Viking’s Cove Bookstore will offer a textbook program in order to save students money.
“We have heard students complain about the prices of [buying] books and we understand that,” said Viking’s Cove Manager Sandy Dowling. “[Books] aren’t an easy fee for any semester.”
The details of how the system will work are uncertain; however, the bookstore is currently working with textbook suppliers to create a system.
“I don’t have an exact figure yet, but rentals should be in the neighborhood of a third to half of the price of buying [books],” said Dowling.
Students who choose to rent will have to sign a contract with the bookstore, which will hold them to returning the book back to the college in the same condition they received it. If a student damages a book, he or she must pay a mandatory fee in order to replace it.
Not every book will be available for rental. There will be a limited number of copies books that can be rented. Also, the number of books that the bookstore can rent to students will be determined by each individual bookseller and students will have to apply for rentals early to secure copies.
Many textbooks include online codes that are used to access required homework. According to Dowling, the rental program should allow codes to be used for online homework without an additional fee, although the details of how this will work are still undetermined.
Dowling says the bookstore needed to start the rental program in order to compete with other book services.
The rental program is just an extension of services that the bookstore already supplies.
One of the services the bookstore offers is that it allows students to bring their class schedules, and employees will search for and return with the required books, as they have been trained to find textbooks based off of a course title alone.
Another service offered is the Pre-Pack service, where students can fill out a short form at their own convenience and have all the books they need prepared for them to pick up at a later date.
“The biggest incentive to buy [books from Viking’s Cove] is that it is a non-profit; any funds made above [the book’s actual cost] is thrown back into the student experience,” said Dowling.
The bookstore is the main source of income for the Faculty Student Association, a non-profit corporation. It works out of Hudson Valley to perform tasks that the college cannot legally do, such as taking out loans for the school.
Through the FSA, the bookstore helps to fund the athletic fields. This year, it has donated $100,000 thousand to the maintenance of the football field. It has also helped fund the construction of the parking garage, the stadium and the campus center.
Dowling says the book rental program will just be another way to throw back into the student experience.
For more information, contact Viking’s Cove Bookstore by email at vikingscove@hvcc.edu, by phone at (518) 629-7426 or in person by visiting the first floor of the Siek Campus Center.