At a time of year when many AU students's wallets are suffering the loss of hundreds of dollars in textbook bills, one Web site, Bookfinder.com, could save students money.
The site, an online service that searches thousands of booksellers' Web sites, could save an incoming AU freshman with an average schedule more than $550 on textbooks.
Supposing the student took college writing, finite mathematics, cross-cultural communication, intermediate Spanish and politics in the U.S. and bought all new textbooks from the AU bookstore, he or she would spend $746.10. If the student purchased available used books, he or she would pay $712.65.
The same books purchased new from Amazon.com cost $541.39 before shipping, based on prices available Sept. 9.
If the student used Bookfinder.com, he or she would pay $179.14, using prices available Sept. 6. Books at this price include international or previous editions.
The Web site searches through all available partner booksellers, from Amazon.com to "small mom-and-pop, selling-off-the-kitchen-table shops," said Anirvan Chatterjee, founder of Bookfinder.com.
"We will scour the ends of the earth," he said.
Hilary Ross, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, said Bookfinder.com sounds like Expedia or Orbitz, Web sites that search the Internet for the cheapest deals on hotels, air travel and car rentals.
In addition to searching for the best prices of the current editions of books, the site looks for older editions and international editions from countries like Canada and Malaysia.
"If you're a little bit flexible, there are amazing deals to be found," Chatterjee said.
International editions are almost identical to U.S. editions but may be written with metric rather than English units of measurement or may have thinner pages, according to Chatterjee.
He compared the international textbooks to Canadian prescription drugs because the packaging may be different, but the basic product is identical.
"There is usually zero content difference," he said.
Ross questioned the site's authenticity.
"I trust Amazon more, and that's where I go first," she said. "But I might try it."
Chatterjee started Bookfinder.com as a class project when he was a student at the University of California, Berkeley in the fall of 1996. The assignment was to make something useful, he said.
"I got an A, thankfully," he said.
Chatterjee and a friend from middle school put the site online in January 1997.
Bookfinder.com is just one way to save money on textbooks.
Working to reduce students' textbook bills is one of the goals of the Student Government, said SG President Joe Vidulich.
The SG will begin a campaign to call the dean of every school to ask them to assign a professor for each class early in the year and to call every professor and ask them to have book orders in to the bookstore by the deadline, he said.
"The price cuts ridiculously for students" if professors know their class assignments and have booklists for second semester to the bookstore by early to mid-October, Vidulich said.
This allows the bookstore to find more used books for each class and, once the book lists are posted online, allows students more time to find the books from other sources.
The SG also works to get every textbook assigned for every class placed on reserve in the library, according to Vidulich. If all the required books are on reserve, students would not have to purchase books in which they only have to read a small portion, he said.
The SG would like to do more to promote alternatives to the bookstore, but cannot because the university has a contract with eFollet and cannot promote other options, Vidulich said. The university and any of its subsidiaries, which include the SG, are prohibited from promoting Bookfinder.com or any other off-campus bookseller because of the contract.
