WKU Store book buyback to increase

The WKU Store plans to develop new ways for students to obtain textbooks, including buying large amounts of used books online. The bookstore also plans to allow buyback of books purchased from both the WKU Store and other retailers. Brandon Carter/HERALD

Jessica Voorhees

The WKU Store is developing methods to break into the e-book market and provide lower textbook prices for students this spring. The store will utilize new software to buy used books online.

Scott Broadbent, course materials manager, said the bookstore will use various new technologies to locate and purchase large quantities of used books from online platforms such as Amazon.

One of these technologies is Verba software, an online software that searches for textbooks from online retailers.

Gary Meszaros, assistant vice president of Auxiliary Services, said many students do not sell their books back to the bookstore, so the inventory of used books does not always sustain the next class.

This results in forcing many students to pay the higher price of a new book.

Meszaros said the new program intends to fix this problem by increasing the inventory of used books and therefore, decreasing the cost of the books as a result.

Broadbent said the bookstore will also begin buying all textbooks from students, regardless of whether it was bought at the WKU Store or elsewhere.

“That doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to get premium dollar for everything,” Broadbent said. “But I don’t care where you bought it. I care what the product is.”

The bookstore will also begin pushing e-book options.

“We’ve actually been doing e-books for years,” Broadbent said. “It’s just something no one seems to notice.”

One department that has adopted frequent use of e-books is the biology department. 

However, Lexington freshman Kelsy Leppo does not like the e-book option for her biology course. 

“I actually got the paper copy of the book because the e-book is not an effective way for me to study,” she said.

Broadbent said his goal in developing the program was to become more competitive with online textbook retailers.

“My philosophy and what I want students to think of with the bookstore is I want to be so price competitive and so easy that there’s not even a question where you’ll get your books,” he said.