Pay a visit to the bottom floor of Broad Street Books during Drop/Add and there will most likely be at least one student paused in front of a given title, contemplating whether to buy the book in the store or to research prices on the Internet.

Rebecca Turkewitz ’10 explained that, although she usually buys her books at Broad Street, she often finds them cheaper online.

“Then I just return the ones I bought at Broad Street, if they’re expensive textbooks,” Turkewitz said.

Undoubtedly, part of the appeal of buying books online is the ability to compare price options.

Bulaong Ramiz ’11 purchased her books at Broad Street this semester, but bought last semester’s books on Amazon.com. After trying both options, Ramiz has decided that she will consider online prices before buying at Broad Street in the future.

“All of my professors have their books [at Broad Street Books],” she said. “I just come here and look at them and take down the information and look them up on Amazon to see if they’re cheaper.”

Beau Anderson ’09 made similar considerations when buying books this semester.

“At Broad Street Books, I only bought copies of the books that were available used, and recorded the ISBNs of all other required books to aid in my shopping online,” Anderson said.

Anderson submitted a list of his book’s ISBNs to http://www.bigwords.com, which searches all of the major used booksellers online to determine the lowest price combination.

“Even accounting for shipping costs, I saved about $50 by purchasing my books online,” he explained.

As students begin to scan the Internet instead of the shelves, professors are taking notice and taking cues.

“I always order all of my course books through the bookstore,” said Professor of Film Studies Lisa Dombrowski. “Increasingly, though, more and more books are either unavailable from distributors or priced considerably higher than what is offered by Internet booksellers. As a result, I e-mailed students over break and requested that they order these titles themselves.”

Dombrowski explained that this new format has both pros and cons.

“The advantage is that I don’t have to change my course readings and students can save some money purchasing used books,” she said. “The disadvantage is that students are paying different prices depending on the vendor they use, and books may not arrive in a timely fashion.”

This semester, students in Philosophy Professor Lori Gruen’s “Humans, Animals, Nature” class opted to buy their books online, as opposed to purchasing them at the bookstore. Although the readings consist primarily of articles available through Blackboard and e-reserve, the two books assigned for the class are trade books that are widely distributed.

“Since the books are readily available, students said they could get them online,” Gruen said.

Like Dombrowski, Gruen also had mixed feelings about students buying their books online.

“I do think it is important to support the bookstore,” Gruen said. “Being able to pick up a book and browse through it is an experience that I don’t think we want to lose. But given rising educational costs, I also think that students should have options so they can save money when possible.”

While professors like Dombrowski and Gruen are responding to the Internet book-buying trend, Broad Street Books remains secure that it is not losing customers anytime soon.

Cliff Ewert, vice president of media relations for Follet Books, the corporation that administers Broad Street Books and efollet.com, said that book sales at Broad Street and through efollet.com have been solid over the past few years.

“Some students feel they can save money by buying through the Internet,” Ewert said. “However, they may be subject to delays in shipping, receiving the wrong edition or title, or a book in poor condition with no return privileges.”

According to Ewert, students can save as much cash at Broad Street Books as they can through buying online—they simply have to be conscientious.

“We believe that the best way for students to save money is through the buying and selling of used books, which are 25 percent less than the new book price,” Ewert said. “By shopping early, students can save on their purchases.”