The Red and Black

Issue date: 4/26/07 Section: News

Media Credit: DANIELLE HUTLAS Ronald Akins and Stephen Watkins founded www.mrbookhead.com, a Website where students can rent books online for three days at a time and pick them up at participating bookstores.

A student's groan at astronomical textbook prices is an annual rite of passage in college.

But Ronald Akins and Stephen Watkins, founders of www.mrbookhead.com, said it doesn't have to be that way.

Through www.mrbookhead.com, students can rent books online for three days at a time and pick them up at participating bookstores, including Beat the Bookstore and Off Campus Bookstore.

"(Watkins) and I were students like you," said Akins, "We would sit in classes without our textbooks because we couldn't afford them or we felt we could skim through the class using lecture notes and Power Points."

The bookstore sets the price per book based on a percentage scale.

If a book costs $75 to purchase and a bookstore lists it at 10 percent of purchase price, then the cost would be $7.50 per three days.

The book selection will consist of the textbooks the local bookstore has reserved for the semester.

Students receive a Personal Check-Out Number that reserves their textbooks to give to the bookstore clerk from the Web site. If the book is not returned by the due date, it automatically re-rents itself for the same price and assigns another due date.

Akins said he wanted to ensure that the other 65 percent of students that do not buy all their textbooks, according to the National Associated of College Stores, have access to them.

"Students may elect to keep the book longer and www.mrbookhead.com will re-rent the book out on your account at the same price," Akins said. "This will make it easier for students who need more time to study."

Although the Web site is not running yet, the program is schedule to launch this fall.

Some professors are skeptical about the rental pressuring students to plan studies in small increments of time.

"The price looks like one of those things that seems like a bargain, but might not really be one," said Richard Menke, assistant English professor. "I'd be skeptical that it will end up doing students much good, financially or academically."

Menke said the Web site slogan suggests desperation.

"Mrbookhead.com is just creating a new middle man to help bookstores plan short-term rentals as well as semester-long ones," he said.

Eric Parks, a junior from Manchester, said he supports the idea.

"I will only use the book three to four times each semester, and I am planning on renting as many as I can," he said.

Beat the Bookstore owner David Conley has experienced students losing books before tests and said he feels the program will allow students to avoid paying full price for something they only will need one time.

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