Perhaps one of the most costly aspects of attending college, other than tuition itself, is purchasing books for classes. New textbooks can run upwards of several hundred dollars each, and students often dread spending the money.
Beginning nearly three years ago, Idaho State University’s bookstore’s participation in the eFollet book rental program offers students a unique opportunity to pay an unusually low price for new or used books.
The books, thousands of which are rented out each semester, are available for rental at the beginning of each semester, and due on the Friday of finals week.
This semester’s rental books are due May 10.
This semester saw an increase in book rentals, as over 8,000 have been rented out compared to last semester’s 6,700.
Laurie Richards, manager of the Pocatello campus bookstore, says that the number of rentals each semester is steadily increasing, crediting the number of books available for rental to the increase.
“40 percent of our titles are available to be rented,” says Richards.
While rental books are popular with students, the bookstore sometimes faces difficulty in gathering back the books that have been rented out over the course of the semester.
Richards says that there has traditionally been approximately 350 books that are not returned at the end of each semester.
The bookstore staff originally expected the number of unreturned books to decrease as students became more comfortable with the rental program, but Richards feels that it hasn’t because “we have new students signing up every semester. The number is always right about there,” Richards comments.

Students should be advised, however, that when they forget to return their rental books, they are charged the full price of a new book.
Richards advises students to update their information on the bookstore website whenever they change credit or debit cards, or phone numbers.
“After the Tuesday of the following week [after the books were due] we start calling people who haven’t returned their books. A week later, we call again.”
Richards says that if students do not respond, or have a new number and are unreachable, the bookstore is forced to “move on” — they re-buy the book so it will be available the upcoming semester.
The bookstore will then be forced to automatically charge the student’s card in order to pay for the new copy.
If the card is no longer active, or is rejected, the staff will eventually seek outside help from collections agencies.
“It’s the worst-case scenario,” says Richards, commenting that “it’s a hard lesson to learn.”
Michon Vanderpoel, a fifth year English student, is a fan of the rental program.
“It’s nice because in some ways I feel like I’m being environmentally friendly. Also, being able to buy the books at a lower cost and then returning them at the end of the year makes just packing and things better,” she said.
While all rental books are due May 10, rental books can be turned into the bookstore at any time during business hours up until that point.
In addition, a collection center will be set up in the Rendezvous complex running May 6-9, and will accept rental returns from 9 to 2 p.m.
The bookstore hours are Monday through Friday from 8 to 5 p.m.
Students can change their rental information online at www.efollett.com.