Recap of Power Point Presentation--How to Reduce the Cost of Textbooks to Students

Seattle Community College District
Textbook Presentation
Lori Schmit, Director of Stores
Russell Markman, Director of Marketing
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Barnes & Noble College Booksellers
What we can do to reduce the cost of textbooks for students

Curbing or reducing the cost of textbooks to students is one of the Seattle CC Bookstores key priorities and a big concern for everyone.
By working together we can lower the cost of textbooks for SCCD students.
Drawings for four $25 Barnes & Noble gift certificates!

A few textbook facts:
SCCD "USED"Textbook sale are $1,115,836. Up 8.8% %, $89,827 from Last Year.
SCCD "NEW"Textbook sales are $3,049,733. Up 3.7%%, $109,508 over Last Year.

Winter Quarter Book Orders – Recap
Book orders for the Winter Quarter were due:
October 23, 2008
Total numbers of book orders received for Winter: up 6% from last year
We received 25% of orders by October 23rd.
We received 82% of orders by 1stday of final exams.
We received 91% orders the week before the 1stday of class.
We received 97% orders after the 1stday of class.

Bookstore Text Order Goals for Spring ’09.
Book orders were due January 30th
by Jan. 30:17%
February 15th:53%
March 1st:74%
Why?
Early Book Orders = more used textbooks for SCCD students.
Allows the bookstore to purchase Used textbooks from:
SCCD Students at the end of the Winter quarter. (Buybackdollars to students: May 1, ’08 through March 1st, 2009: $374,812.)
National Used Book Wholesalers.

Buyback & the ‘Net Cost’ to a student
Example: Lay, Linear Algebra w/ CD
New Price:$151.45
Buyback Value $44.00 (when NOT used following term or missing essential components)
Net Cost to Student:$107.45
Buyback & the ‘Net Cost’ to a student
Lay, Linear Algebra – Text Only
USED Text Price:$141.35
50% Buyback value when used the following semester:$70.75
Net cost to student:$70.60

SCCD Textbook Stats
We can lower the cost of Textbooks by:
Using the same book for multiple quarters (where appropriate).
Unbundling packages.
Digital Textbooks:
66 titles were offered in digital format this Winter ’09 quarter.
Anticipating 50+ titles for Spring Qtr. ’09.
Digital textbooks are 30% off the new textbook price.
Are downloaded to the student’s computer
Digital titles can not be sold back to the Bookstore.
Seattle Community College District
Questions?
Feedback?

Bookstore Advisory Committee Meeting Notes, Feb 25, 2009

BOOKSTORE ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING NOTES
February 25, 3pm
Attended by: Linda Cornutt, Jeff Keever, Anh Tran, Patti Thompson, Kim Lawler, David Totten, Carl Waluconis, Lawrence Morales, Helen Wu, Anh Ngoc Dao Hoang, Michael Cheng

Introductions
Patti Thompson, Bookstore Manager, briefly discussed the minutes from the last meeting from December.

Patti then discussed the results of the December 2008 buyback period. The Bookstore gave out $61,000 to students during this most recent buyback period, as compared to $53,000 during the same buyback in December 2007, which represents a 15% increase year over year. Patti and Anh both wondered if the email that David Totten, a Student Representative to the Advisory Committee, had sent out to students had had a positive effect on the buyback.

Patti announced the upcoming workshop for all District Faculty, sponsored by the District Faculty Development Coordinator Office, entitled, “What WE Can Do to Reduce the Cost of Textbooks to Students”, to be held March 4. Lori Schmidt, Director of Stores for Barnes and Noble, will be coming to this campus that day to facilitate this workshop, and advise faculty on what they can do to help students save money on books.

Anh and Patti discussed the upcoming change in procedure for ordering books. Beginning in Summer, 2009, faculty book orders will be initiated by faculty using the Liquid Office system. The reason for this change is to streamline the book ordering process, to make it more efficient, requiring less “paper and mail” handling, and also to decrease the chances of a book order being lost in a shuffle of paperwork. Judy Blair will conduct training sessions for both staff who actually place the orders with the Bookstore, as well as the faculty who will be initiating the orders. Lawrence and Kim had many questions surrounding this issue, such as the issue of having to input all the information each quarter for a textbook which will be used throughout the academic year; also, will the Liquid Office form the staff use have a “form fill” feature, so that ISBNs for such recurring book titles will automatically be generated. Patti and Anh both agreed to look into this issue.

Jeff announced the start up of the “Bookstore Blog”, a place where these meeting notes will be posted, as well as any other important information that faculty and students may need to be aware of. There is a link to this blog from the Bookstore main web page. It was suggested that the dates for buyback for students be posted on this blog.

The question was asked: what would draw students to the Bookstore? Students responded: stationeries, book signings, more public events, collaboration with the CAB, for example at the Unity Fair.