College Bookstore Options Need Explanations

College Bookstore Options Need Better Explanations

Edit: 4/17/2024 - Classes are almost over now. I've found that my initial enthusiasm for the Red Shelf e-book has severely waned. I almost never used the ENG112 e-book throughout the course. First, it has DRM (digital rights management) restrictions on it limiting your ability to copy and paste. I'm old and like printing out the current weeks lesson on paper. It gives me something physical to touch and hold and write notes on. The e-book has a 'notes' feature but, it's just not the same to me. I ended up getting a .pdf copy of my book from Z-Library. The best feature of the Red Shelf book is it's ability to create citations in MLA format for you when you selected text. A really cool feature, but not a necessity. Bottom line, I would still purchase either a physical book or e-book from college bookstore (it would depend on my personal preference over the material being covered), but that's only because I believe you should pay for your textbook. Using a book from Z-Library feels like stealing by proxy. This way, if I pay for the book, I feel like I'm entitled to the copy I get from Z-Library (where the Z-Library copy is preferred because of the lack of DRM).

Was I duped?

At first I thought I was. Now I’m reconsidering it. It all started at my college bookstore. I signed up for ENG112 at my local community college. Compared to when I went to college the first time - over 2 decades ago - things have really changed.

The process of obtaining your college Textbooks can easily be done all online now. At my college it’s done through Follet Discover. First, you login to an internal college web service through the internet. You’re then given several app options to launch. You can launch the Follett app and it generates a page specific to you and the courses you signed up for. The page auto-populates with all the course material required for your class(es).

While checking out the course material I was informed by the web page that there were 2 required textbooks for my English 112 course. Both had the same title. I assumed one was a basic text and the other was a workbook or something related. 

When you clicked on the first required textbook you are presented with further options - physical or eBook, rent or buy. Me, being old school, chose a physical text. I read books for pleasure in my Kindle reader. But with textbooks I like to feel the pages. I like to be able to flip back and forth between the pages - searching for what I’m looking for. I like the feel of a pen as I write notes on the pages of my text. I like the feel of accessibility a physical book gives me. I chose to buy over rent hoping the text will still be required next semester and I can re-sell it.

When you clicked on the second required text there was only one option. Electronic. And it’s a time limited rental with no option to own your purchase.

So, about a week later I get my physical book and the Teacher opens up the course (by ‘opens up’ the course I mean she has allowed electronic access to the syllabus and the first course submissions). I started by examining the e-text that I thought was different from my physical book. It takes a few minutes to get used to navigating the text in a browser on my phone as it has a few quirky features.

To my initial surprise it’s not a workbook or other material, but contains the required reading material for the first week. I then move to my physical textbook to check it out. It’s identical. Honestly, at this point I felt like I’d been duped into purchasing the same thing twice. An unnecessary purchase of an already overpriced necessity.

The following morning I decided to get on the Follet web page and screenshot the excessive/confusing  choices I was presented and complain to whoever would listen. Wouldn’t you know it? Apparently after you purchase your course material the Follett page does not go back to present you with the choices you need for your current class schedule.

What I’m actually presented with on the web page is the ability to launch my rented eBook in a new web page - something called RedShelf eReader & Brytewave. I try futilely to get back to the original pages I was presented with prior to purchase - to no avail - to get my screenshots.

So, after poking around I actually launch the app that opens my eBook in a browser and start poking around. It’s actually REALLY cool. Like with a PDF reader you can highlight text. But it goes even further; allowing you to create flashcards and notes. Better yet, in my opinion, is you can highlight a portion of the text with your mouse and it will create a citation and/or a bibliography entry for you! Not only THAT, but it will let you choose between an APA, Chicago, or MLA format for your citation. For an English class that requires you to use citations this is REALLY cool.

The physical textbook text is so small I found myself completing my reading assignment on my phone - where I could resize my text to a much more comfortable/ readable text size. Now, with these new-found features of the rental book... I wish I had known.

It’s only the first few days of my new learning endeavor. Classes don’t even officially start for 2 more days. But, I suspect my new go-to is going to be this Brytewave/ RedShelf eBook. I wish I had known. I wish the college bookstore had done a better job of explaining the options available. On the other hand, without this error, I might have never tried the Brytewave eBook in the first place. At first I believed I had been duped into purchasing an eBook I did not need. While it now appears it may be the physical book that was a waste of $105.

I do have one caveat to this post. I did not choose, nor have I ever chosen, the e-publication in the first option I was presented with at the bookstore. I am assuming it's essentially an eBook in a .pdf format. Something similar to what I would get on my Kindle.