Learning by loans: Dal Bookstore launches textbook rental service

Buy it new or buy it used.

Until recently, those were the options facing Dal students seeking to lay hands on prescribed textbooks at the busy start of their semesters. But during last year’s winter term, the Dal Bookstore began to offer another option for students: renting textbooks.

After a quiet run in the winter, the program is ramping up this fall. Tina Shannon, manager of the Dal Bookstore, says that out of the more than 1,000 books currently being offered this fall term at the Halifax bookstores, approximately 730 of them are available on a rental basis.

Shipped right to your doorstep

The rental service is the result of a partnership between the Bookstore and textbookrental.ca. When a book is rented, textbookrental.ca promptly ships the book to the renter. At the end of the rental term, the renter ships the book back to textbookrental.ca using the pre-paid shipping slip provided. Renters are responsible for ensuring that the returned book is in 'as-delivered' condition.

Dal students can access the rental service through the textbook search function of the Bookstore website. (If a rental option is available, you’ll see it beneath the new and used prices for the book.) Renters can select from three rental periods: the full semester, a yearly quarter (three months), or 60 days.

The savings depend on the rental period selected and on the specific book in question. Rental rates range anywhere from 25 to 75 per cent of the book’s new condition list price.

For example, Cell and Molecular Biology (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.), a required textbook for Biology (BIOL2020), is listed on the Dal Bookstore website for $180.31. The same book is also available there on a 60-day rental basis for $100.64 — approximately 55 per cent of the list cost.

More options for students

The textbook rental service is another instance of the Bookstore reaching out to students and offering “as many different options in terms of obtaining the course materials as we can,” Shannon says.

The overall enthusiasm among Dal students for the rental service remains to be seen, but Shannon notes that the Bookstore had interest from students during its quiet launch in the winter term, receiving a number of inquiries. Those are good signs, Shannon says, but the full scope and student uptake of the service will “be clearer after a full fall term.” (The Bookstore is also working on making the service available in Truro, with plans to roll it out this fall.)

Shannon is pleased with the rental service so far, saying, “it’s great to be able to offer [a] solution that offers value for students.”

Philosophy major Peter Kroeker agrees.

“I would definitely use it if it saves me time and money,” he says. “Anything that streamlines the beginning of term is good in my books.”

For more information about the textbook rental service, check out the Bookstore's website.