Canadian students looking to save money on textbooks are being encouraged by a Carleton alumnus to join the mob — the Bookmob, that is.
Bookmob is an online textbook rental service, created by recent Carleton commerce graduate Brad Dolan. It provides students across Canada access to thousands of textbooks that can be rented out for a period of 45 to 120 days at a reduced price.
Dolan said he started the business after he noticed he couldn’t find anything similar in Canada, and described the “mob” theme as somewhat symbolic of a new student movement.
“It’s about joining together as students and finding more affordable ways to get textbooks. We actually refer to our customers as ‘mobsters,’ ” Dolan said.
For Carleton students, Bookmob is not only an alternative for buying textbooks, but also stands to compete with Carleton’s own recently launched Rent-A-Text program.
“I think [Carleton] is aiming to cash in on titles that are most profitable to make the biggest return. We want to offer a bigger selection,” he said.
“Anything you can find on a site like Amazon.ca you can find on the website,” Dolan said.
According to Ed Kane, assistant vice-president of university services, Carleton’s rental program aims to have about 20 per cent of textbook titles available for rent. Students are able to rent three books for the price of buying one new textbook, Kane said.
“We are focused on titles that are specifically required for the current semester and have been specifically requested by faculty,” Kane said.
When it comes down to cost, Dolan said his company uses a standard pricing equation based on supply and demand and a $4.99 flat rate fee for delivery.
“You could find a textbook in a store for $100 and find it on our website for $30 to $40, saving anywhere from 50-80 per cent off,” Dolan said.
Kane pointed out Carleton’s Rent-A-Text has a consistent 55 per cent discount on each book, as determined by demand, publisher price and availability, and students do not have to pay for delivery fees.
“[Delivery fees] would only eat into the savings for students,” he said.
For Carleton students like Caitlyne Brewer, renting textbooks may save you money, but also brings with it a significant impact on the actual value of using the book.
“You aren’t going to be able to write in the textbook or reference it in later years,” said Brewer, a second-year psychology student.
Second-year Canadian studies and political science student Cara Des Granges agreed, because she said she finds that she “enjoys revisiting information from old textbooks,” especially when course content can be similar from year-to-year.
Dolan noted that Bookmob is being well received by students and said he is already looking forward to expanding Bookmob into offering course packs.
“I’m looking at a possibility of a marketplace approach, which would be the perfect environment for trading course packs amongst the students,” Dolan said.