What happens at the end of the year to our piles of textbooks? It’s the question I’ve been asking myself as I stare down dozens of books I’ve accumulated over four years of college education. Some I hope to keep for my own personal library, but there are some I will probably never look at again. They’re ready for a new home—but where?
I don’t want to try textbook buyback. I know they’ll buy my books at a fraction of the price and still charge the next college student the small fortune it cost me to acquire them in the first place. Many students peddle their old books off on Facebook or Instagram, making sure they get into the eager hands of the next Covenant student. But there’s only so much of an audience you can find. And of course, at the end of the semester, you can find textbooks scattered through dorm lobbies, with sticky notes announcing their prices and venmo links.
What if there was a more convenient, cohesive way to bring together textbooks and students who need them? Some departments do book sales—what if we could make it a school-wide endeavor?
An organized, campus-wide booksale would allow students to part with textbooks, earn a little money, and at the same time put them directly in the hands of the students who will need them! In the same way Bakertree allows students to sell their creative work, a campus book sale could enable students to participate in their campus community and help out the next class.
The downsides: it would require a degree of organization. Set-up, marketing and tear-down would all need to be figured out. On top of that, Covenant’s schedule is already stuffed with events and full of commitments for students. Finding the time for such an event and getting students interested might not be easy.
Students would also need to figure out their book list early. I usually wait until a week or two before classes begin to pick out my textbooks and get them sent to me. In order to participate in such a book sale, I’d need my classlist and the books I needed figured out much farther in advance.
The upsides seem incredible, however. I’d be able to help out my fellow classmates, earn a little money myself, skip shipping costs and wait times, and would know that my books were finding a home with another Covenant student who needed it.