UAB Partners With Barnes & Noble on Textbook Rental; Some Prices to Be Cut in Half

Students at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) will be able to rent selected textbooks from the Barnes & Noble at UAB Bookstore beginning in the fall of 2010, a new option that will mean savings of more than 50 percent off the cost of purchasing a new printed textbook.

May 10, 2010

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Students at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) will be able to rent selected textbooks from the Barnes & Noble at UAB Bookstore beginning in the fall of 2010, a new option that will mean savings of more than 50 percent off the cost of purchasing a new printed textbook.

"UAB is committed to offering its students the lowest-cost alternatives to purchasing new and increasingly expensive textbooks with which to complete their coursework," said UAB Provost Eli Capilouto. "The university's new agreement with Barnes and Noble College Booksellers will help reduce the financial pressures many of our students face when it comes to acquiring increasingly expensive textbooks at the start of each new semester.

"I commend the members of the UAB textbook taskforce that was formed to investigate ways to bring textbook costs down and that proposed the rental program for us," Capilouto said.

The UAB Bookstore is the state's first university bookstore managed by Barnes and Noble College Booksellers (BNCB) to offer a rental program to students.

Students will be able to pay for the rentals - which also will be available online at www.uab.bncollege.com - using any form of payment accepted by the UAB Bookstore. The program is expected to save UAB students an estimated total of $200,000 annually.

Students will make their rentals at the start of each semester and keep them for the duration of the semester; during that time they can mark or highlight the books as they would a purchased one. Rented textbooks are due back to the bookstore 10 days after the last day of finals.

BNCB has tested the rental program at 25 nationwide universities to positive feedback from students. Bobby Hamous, the company's regional manager based in Birmingham, said many more U.S. universities with campus bookstores managed by BNCB will have access to the program starting this fall.

"Our rental rates will be more than 50 percent off the cover price of a newly printed textbook," Hamous said. "We are happy to add the rental service to the range of options - including new, used, digital and unbundled book sales - that are currently available at the UAB Bookstore."

Rentals will not be available for every UAB class because some courses require one-time-use or other custom textbooks, but approximately 28 percent of titles are expected to be available though the rental program. 

The UAB textbook taskforce credited with helping to bring the book rental program to UAB was created to make recommendations for what UAB should do to meet federal reforms that take effect this summer and are contained in the 2008 U.S. Department of Education Higher Education Opportunity Act, a part of which encourages universities to seek ways to lower textbook costs for students.

UAB textbook taskforce members are Scott Plutchak, director of the UAB Lister Hill Library of Health Sciences; Warren Martin, Ph.D., retired professor of business; Stella Cocoris, assistant vice president of UAB Enrollment Services; Andre´ Davis, director of UAB Business and Auxiliary Services; Greg Pence, Ph.D., professor of philosophy; Ellen Buckner, R.N., former professor of nursing; Sheri Spaine Long, Ph.D., associate professor of foreign languages; Mark Hickson, Ph.D., professor of communication studies; graduate student Emily Norman; undergraduate student Hernandez Stroud; and Reginald Reese, department manager at the UAB Bookstore.

About Barnes & Noble, Inc.

Barnes & Noble Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world's largest bookseller and a Fortune 500 company, operates 775 bookstores in 50 states. Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Barnes & Noble, also operates 639 college bookstores serving nearly 4 million students and over 250,000 faculty members at colleges and universities throughout the United States. For more information, please visit www.bncollege.com.

About UAB

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