

Ask HN: Why haven't universities moved to textbook subscriptions - modelic2

Does anyone here know of a service that allows students to rent e-versions of classroom textbooks for the duration of a semester?
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kyro
I don't know of any service that does that, but I've been toying around with a
similar idea for some time - a service that helps students rent textbooks from
others, make deposits, track who's renting my books, etc. Students would then
compete on their rental fees. I figured it'd be a good way for students to
make some side cash, seeing as how a lot of the times, students have a hard
time selling their texts at the end of the term, and the buy-back programs set
up by the schools themselves can give you something like only 30% of what you
originally paid to purchase the text, which is really nothing at all.

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modelic3
That's actually a pretty good idea but I was thinking something along the
lines of a subscription type of service that works very closely with
publishers.

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NathanKP
I know there are plenty of physical book rental services, such as:

<http://www.chegg.com/>

However, I really don't know of any ebook rental service. I guess it sounds
like a good idea, but as a college student myself I prefer real books.

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modelic3
This is what I don't understand. Most students just use the book for the class
they are in and then completely forget about it. Wouldn't it be better if
schools included e-versions of textbooks as part of the tuition? It would be
way cheaper for everyone and publisher could incorporate feedback in real
time.

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jimr
CourseSmart (<http://www.coursesmart.com>) seems to do what you're looking
for. I think it's either run by, or is closely affiliated with a bunch of the
major textbook publishers.

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modelic3
This is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks. Although I expected the prices
to be much lower.

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karanbhangui
At the University of Waterloo, a lot of people this year seem to be using
<http://moarbooks.ca/>

