"Book Bailout '09" (copyright pending)
**Update: Our preliminary math was way off. The grand total earned by/for the students was actually $1024.50 . I'm floored!**
Our tiny commuter school doesn't have a campus bookstore (since we barely have a campus). Instead, a faculty member posts assigned textbooks on an online textbook ordering site, and students are expected to order from there. Designed for small schools, and probably small itself, it's not particularly user-friendly, and the books are overpriced and take a long time to arrive. So much so that when I order textbooks for the library, the administration has me order them from Amazon.
Last fall when my fledgling library advisory committee met to discuss strategies for improving the library that did not involve spending money (a caveat from my boss), someone suggested holding a textbook swap for students and charging admission. The students would buy and sell books to each other, and the library would make a small fee. At the time we dismissed it as not a source of significant enough profits (not to mention that I'm not sure I'm even allowed to fundraise). But the humanities department chair and I liked the idea enough to pursue it.
At the end of the fall semester we set up a table in the hall outside the library and offered students a chance to drop off their old textbooks and set a price for each one. If the books sold, the student would get the profits. If not, he or she would have the option of donating the books to the library or taking them home. We weren't sure what to expect, but 35 students showed up with a total of more than 150 books. We were encouraged, but a little nervous that we'd end up having to give them all back.
Today was the textbook sale. We didn't do a gate count, but we were thrilled with the turnout, and we sold about half of the books. This was especially exciting because we didn't limit the dropoffs to currently assigned textbooks, and there were an awful lot that weren't on the syllabi for this semester.
I have to do the accounting tomorrow, but we think we took in almost $700 today. All of that goes to the students, but that's fine with me. In addition to a few outdated textbooks to add to the library collection, we both got a lot of satisfaction out of having pulled this off in the first place, and being reasonably successful. Several students already asked if there would be another event at the end of this semester, and one very enthusiastic student repeated "Do this every semester!" over and over while he was checking out.
After a very rough first day of the semester, it was nice to have a moment of triumph. Once again it was outside of the library, but at least this time we were within shouting distance of the door.
Our tiny commuter school doesn't have a campus bookstore (since we barely have a campus). Instead, a faculty member posts assigned textbooks on an online textbook ordering site, and students are expected to order from there. Designed for small schools, and probably small itself, it's not particularly user-friendly, and the books are overpriced and take a long time to arrive. So much so that when I order textbooks for the library, the administration has me order them from Amazon.
Last fall when my fledgling library advisory committee met to discuss strategies for improving the library that did not involve spending money (a caveat from my boss), someone suggested holding a textbook swap for students and charging admission. The students would buy and sell books to each other, and the library would make a small fee. At the time we dismissed it as not a source of significant enough profits (not to mention that I'm not sure I'm even allowed to fundraise). But the humanities department chair and I liked the idea enough to pursue it.
At the end of the fall semester we set up a table in the hall outside the library and offered students a chance to drop off their old textbooks and set a price for each one. If the books sold, the student would get the profits. If not, he or she would have the option of donating the books to the library or taking them home. We weren't sure what to expect, but 35 students showed up with a total of more than 150 books. We were encouraged, but a little nervous that we'd end up having to give them all back.
Today was the textbook sale. We didn't do a gate count, but we were thrilled with the turnout, and we sold about half of the books. This was especially exciting because we didn't limit the dropoffs to currently assigned textbooks, and there were an awful lot that weren't on the syllabi for this semester.
I have to do the accounting tomorrow, but we think we took in almost $700 today. All of that goes to the students, but that's fine with me. In addition to a few outdated textbooks to add to the library collection, we both got a lot of satisfaction out of having pulled this off in the first place, and being reasonably successful. Several students already asked if there would be another event at the end of this semester, and one very enthusiastic student repeated "Do this every semester!" over and over while he was checking out.
After a very rough first day of the semester, it was nice to have a moment of triumph. Once again it was outside of the library, but at least this time we were within shouting distance of the door.
posted by Madame Defarge at 5:33 PM
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