Story on “Morning Edition” on NPR
Kelly Carmichael is a Sacramento State University senior studying to be an elementary school teacher. A book for one of her child development courses cost more than $170. But when a professor mentioned that she didn’t have to buy the book because she could rent it for the semester, Carmichael says it was a no-brainer.
“For any title that is for rent, you’ll see a sign that will show the new and used price, but also the rent-it-for price. So, for example, this text here, Infants, Child and Adolescents — new it would be $142, used it would be $106.50, and you can rent it for $58.34.”
Even better solution
I looked into textbook rental during my single semester as an MLIS student and, yes, it was a great bargain. Even better was borrowing one of my texts from another college library through Interlibrary Loan, Utilizing the maximum number of allowable renewals, I was able to get through the semester without paying a dime.
They never seem to mention
They never seem to mention borrowing books from the Library these days. I bought no books for my Library and Information Studies degree, only having to buy some for my Child Psychology courses and those I didn’t really need that much.
But when you rent something you have to give it back so you don’t have anything to show for my money if you needed that information again.
Unless you photocopied it of course 😉