Textbook rentals could cut costs for Bismarck State College students heading back to school.

Students can rent books for English 110, communication 110 and statistics through the BSC bookstore. The cost varies by book.

The statistics book, for instance is $40 to rent compared with paying $120 to purchase new, bookstore manager Tanya Fuher said. Used books cost three-fourths of the price of a new book.

"They can highlight in it and use it like theirs," Fuher said about the rental books. The rental books are hard-covered by the publisher to extend the shelf life.

The bookstore started renting textbooks during the spring 2006 semester. Students buy their own books for college classes. At the end of the semester, the books can be resold.

Students return the books during finals, when books are traditionally sold back to the bookstore.

"I think it's a really great idea," textbook coordinator and former BSC student Jennifer Weisgerber said. "Some students probably think it's a better deal buying and selling it back."

She is now a Dickinson State University student at BSC. She has to order her books online or go to Dickinson for books for her class. Students in the distance learning program through Minot State University can buy their textbooks at the BSC bookstore.

Textbooks for the fall semester started selling today. Starting Aug. 15, BSC students can charge the cost to financial aid.

Metal shelves at the back of the store are filled, floor to ceiling, with books. It takes several weeks to get to this point, from getting professors to adopt titles, to placing orders and setting up.

Most of the orders came in July in 400 boxes. Books from publishers come sorted by title, but used books come in boxes of assorted titles.

"We had to move fixtures, because 400 boxes takes up a lot of space," Weisgerber said, as she motioned to the clothing racks and shelves that they moved to the perimeter of the store.

By the day after delivery, Fuher, Weisgerber and other bookstore employees had checked the delivery against shipping lists and sorted the books onto the shelves by course name and section.

Some books, like those for some computer classes, are not in yet. Students taking those classes could start class without a book, which is usually not a problem.

"It's hard for first-time students to go to class" without a book, Fuher said. It can leave the student feeling unprepared, she said.

When the bookstore gets a possible delivery date on delayed books, a sticky note goes up on the shelf with the date or advice to talk to the instructor.

The bookstore gets its textbook inventory from book buyback, used book distributors and publishers. Fuher submits her book lists to the used-book distributors two or three times before placing orders for new books with the publishers, she said.

"I would like to do 100 percent used, but every other school bookstore in the country would like to do the all used," Fuher said. So, it varies how many books she can get in that are used.

The markup on books is 10 percent to 12 percent, she said.

"Students have to understand, it is the publisher raking them over the coals," she said.

She encourages instructors to stick with the same book, if they can. Sometimes, a publisher will stop printing an edition and also pull all the copies of that edition from the market, she said.

On average, the shelf life of a college textbook is two years.

The rental program at BSC could help. When instructors agree to have a book in the rental program, they agree to use the same book for three years, Fuher said.

To rent a book, students need to go to the bookstore and have a student identification card. Books are due during finals, and late fees apply for books not turned in on time.

(Reach reporter Sara Kincaid at 250-8251 or sara.kincaid@;bismarcktribune.com.)