UPDATE – Winners Joy and Courtney were selected 9/1/10. This giveaway has ended.

Are you facing the financial burden of back to school and in need of cheap textbooks? Let us, along with Follett, help ease the pain with a $100 gift card.

Comment below and tell us why you need this $100 Follett gift card. “Poor college student” isn’t going to cut it, because let’s face it, most current college students, and even those of us who once walked those hallowed halls, have carried that title.

We will draw two winners September 1, 2010 – each will receive a $100 gift card from Follett to be used in their campus bookstores. Read the rest of this entry »

It sounds like something out of the future: imagine scanning a bar code of a textbook with your phone and instantly finding the cheapest price for that book available on Half.com. Well, you don’t have to imagine any longer, because a new app for the iPhone allows you to do just that.

iPhone has partnered with Half.com to create a new app that will make buying your textbooks – and many other items – much quicker and easier. The app allows users to scan the bar codes on many items, including textbooks, DVDs, and video games, with their iPhones and find the best prices on those items on Half.com. The majority of products on Half.com are 50 percent off, including pricey textbooks, which might be reason enough for me to trade in my other smart phone for an iPhone. Read the rest of this entry »

CourseSmart is making it easier for you to find and use their e-textbooks on your iPad. They’re now offering an updated version of their free “eTextbooks” app. Not only does the app make it easy to find and purchase digital textbooks, it also has a virtual bookshelf where users can see the books they own and easily access them. It also has a sticky note feature, so students can take notes as they read.

Perhaps most importantly, the eTextbooks app has new navigation within the texts.  Students can use thumbnails of pages to quickly find what they need, avoiding the pain of scrolling though pages. CourseSmart says it gives students access to over 90 percent of all textbooks in use today, with download times of no more than five minutes to both computers and hand-held devices. Storing and using digital textbooks on a iPad or similar devices overcomes the inconvenience of having the book stored on a more unwieldy computer. Read the rest of this entry »

As a college student, I truly understand why the beginning of the semester strikes fear into the hearts of many. It’s not the thought of getting up for that 8:00 a.m. class, or stressing over essays and exams. No, the worst part of the beginning of the semester is buying your books.

It is common knowledge that textbooks are expensive. Some can cost more than $200 when they are brand new. No matter how you try to spin it, the fact is that it really sucks when a grand portion of your summer paychecks go straight to paying for your Zoology 101 textbook.

So, how can you find the best, cheapest textbooks out there? You could drive to every textbook store in your town. You could make a spreadsheet and compare all of the different online rental companies. Or you could take the easy way out and use Textbook Pricing. Read the rest of this entry »

Barnes and Noble has made it easier than ever for college students to access electronic textbooks. The bookstore chain is teaming up with Blackboard Inc., a provider of software to educational institutions, and the partnership hopes to launch this integration in the fall.

How will it work? Simple. When you log on to your Blackboard account and click on one of your enrolled courses, you’ll find links to electronic versions of the course’s textbooks. You’ll be able to both purchase and download these required texts all in one place.

In addition, the two companies will work to make Blackboard content coexist with Barnes and  Noble’s new eTextbook reader, called Nookstudy. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, it seems that college bookstores are trying to get in on the popular new trend of textbook rental.

Follett Higher Education Group announced a new plan to expand its textbook rental program to 850 college and university bookstores. In fall 2009, Follett’s pilot program was implemented at seven schools and saved students almost $2 million, as opposed to buying textbooks. By January 2010, there were 27 schools participating in the program. Starting the 2010 school year, Follett expects to have rental programs in place at more than 800 schools.

“Our rental program is efficient and value-driven and will benefit students while providing them with yet another affordable choice from Follett bookstores,” said Thomas A. Christopher, president of Follett Higher Education Group. “We have been at the forefront of cost-savings programs for more than a century, and this is just one of many options…to drive down the cost of course materials.” Read the rest of this entry »

It seems like the number of places students can buy textbooks grows everyday. The popular bookseller Borders launched its online “Borders Textbook Marketplace” yesterday, which flaunts 1.4 million titles and savings of up to 90 percent.

The Textbook Marketplace is the product of a partnership between Borders and online textbook source Alibris. Books for all educational levels—elementary school, middle school, high school and college—will be for sale. Other titles frequently used in classrooms are also available, as are education-related books, like advice books for choosing a college and homeschooling resources. Students will also be able to use the platform to resell books.

The new marketplace does not have a rental service, unlike Chegg.com and Barnes & Noble. Textbook rentals look like they will be the big upcoming trend for students who want to save money, so it’s surprising that Borders hasn’t jumped on board. Also yet to be seen is whether or not digital textbooks will be available through the service.

Read More:

How to Find Affordable College Textbooks

Targeting Teachers to Sell E-Textbooks

With the jury still out on digital iPad textbooks, publishers are adapting a new strategy for selling e-textbooks, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. They’re pitching them to professors by integrating the digital format with course-management systems they probably already use.

Blackboard announced that it will partner with publisher McGraw Hill and college bookstores Follett Higher Eduction Group and Barnes & Noble college booksellers. Together, they will sell textbooks through the tech company’s course-management system. This will allow educators to connect online assignments from e-texts directly to existing online grade books. Read the rest of this entry »

Amazon is offering a new program called Amazon Students to any U.S. student with a “.edu” email address who is enrolled in at least one course. The program incorporates Amazon’s Prime service, which features two-day free shipping with no purchase minimum and special student deals. That means any discounted textbooks that can be purchased from Amazon will be shipped for free–and students won’t have to worry that their savings will be spent in handling costs. Plus, two day shipping rivals the campus bookstore for convenience. Read the rest of this entry »

Nobody likes buying college textbooks. The entire process is frustrating and hard on your pocketbook. You pay way too much money for a textbook that you might or might not use – depending on how much your professor actually uses that book – and then when the semester is over, you sell it back for considerably less money than you paid for it. For example, I bought a Spanish textbook for $95 last semester, and when I sold it back, I got a measly $11. Completely awful, huh?

Fortunately, there is an alternative to buying your textbooks and then selling them back. This alternative is renting your textbooks. According to Chegg.com, the average student will save more than $500 if he or she rents his or her books instead of buying books each year. So, if you are like me and would rather hold onto your money than give it to the big publishing companies, consider renting your textbooks this year. Here are some of the most popular places for renting textbooks. Read the rest of this entry »