Textbooks for Less: A look at your textbook options

Amazon Student, a free site, designed by students

By Wazim Mohammed

Hunting for textbooks this time of year can be expensive as well as frustrating, so here's list of great resources to utilize in your search:

Café scribe” is designed specifically for eBook material that caters directly towards college students, this is your option number one. Café scribe is digital and students can save between 40-60% off the standard textbook cost. Students can access online textbooks for 180 days or take part in a free three day trial. Café smart is comes fully equipped with a number of study tool in which students can take notes and openly share them with others online or off, this option is clearly a smarter way for students to study.

 “Amazon Student” is another option that students can use in order to get their textbooks. Amazon Student is a free site that is designed only for college students. College students that are currently enrolled in a college or university who have a valid working .edu e-mail address can sign up for Amazon Student through the website. This site offers students free two day shipping for six months, which removes the hassle of shipping fees and postal returns. Also students can share their account with other if they choose to purchase the Amazon Student Prime for just $39, with this tool students can openly communicate with their peers any notes or topics covered in their eBook online.

Another great option for students looking to purchase books at a low cost is Chegg.com. Chegg, unlike other sites, allows students to rent books for 180 days, and upon return shipping is free of charge. What’s great about Chegg is that it enables student’s access to many tools. For example students using Chegg have access to 24/7 expert study help, and can see reviews and ratings from other students. Cynthia Shiwbodh a student right here on the Lake-Sumter Community College South Lake Campus is an active member of the website and had nothing but positive feedback, “All I do is go online shop for the books I need and rent them or the semester when I’m finished I return them back by dropping them off at a ups location and I don’t even have to pay a shipping cost.”

It’s clearly apparent that online textbook purchases are cheaper than actually going to the LSCC
bookstore. I did a comparison in price for textbooks that are required for my next semester and should I choose to purchase my books through for sale at the Bookstore versus EBay I would save about is a saving of $40 between just two textbooks. Pre calculus functions can be rented at the LSCC bookstore for $104 versus a purchase of $92 on EBay, similarly with the textbook required for Anatomy & Physiology, it too can be rented at the LSCC book store for $114 versus a purchase of $85 on EBay.

Lastly to round off our top five textbook options is the LSCC Lending Library. The Lending Library is
located on all Lake-Sumter campuses and can be accessed free of charge through the learning center. The lending library is a system that we have here at Lake-Sumter Community College in which students of all types are able to check out textbooks free of charge for their semester. Students are encouraged to donate books to the library in which future students can check them out themselves and later return prior to the start of the next semester. Hebrock, current manager of the Learning Center Program Development states, “The lending library program has done wonders for those students that are incapable of acquiring the required textbooks for their classes. It truly is a disappointment to hear that a student cannot afford to buy textbooks for their classes due to lack of money.”