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University Textbook Exchange Software

Posted by michael on from the cut-out-the-middleman dept.

PageMap writes "With the textbook-buying season upon us, many universities and student organizations are attempting to combat the on-campus bookstore's overcharging by starting up their own grassroots book exchange efforts. The problem is the seeming lack of available web-based software to facilitate an efficient book exchange. Is there such a thing as free web-based software made for this type of use?"

9 of 324 comments (clear)

  1. UT has one by Lane.exe · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm not sure if it's free or not, but the University of Texas has a book exchange. I've never used it personally, but I know people who have and they've always been satisfied with it.

    --
    IAALS.
  2. Are you talking legally or illegally? by cliffy2000 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    At my school, we kept PDFs of the student solutions manuals on the school network. This was probably a violation of copyright law, but it's an effective countermeasure to being charged $40 for a tiny paperback book.

  3. Forum? by shadowcabbit · · Score: 5, Informative

    Why not just set up a BBS/forum? Plenty of free ones exist (phpBB, phorum being the two most popular), and a little moderation and regulation (i.e. one forum has offers, one side has requests), you could easily have an alternative to the campus bookstore.

    --
    "Why Subscribe?" Good question...
  4. Auction software by madsen · · Score: 5, Informative

    Take a look at MySQLauction.
    Freshmeat is also a good startting point.

  5. Creating a Monster by fbroooooz · · Score: 5, Interesting
    When my parents went to school they actively participated in a grassroots book exchange program to protest the high priced book and supply store that had all the business. By the time I started taking classes at that same school, the small book exchange they started had transformed into an equally evil and overpriced textbook boutique.

    Perhaps politics and bureaucracy are the main roadblocks to creating something like this instead of html, cgi, and perl.

  6. Rutgers Used Book Swap by jgaynor · · Score: 5, Informative

    A Member of the Rutgers University Student Linux Users Group has created just such a thing here at RU using PHP and MySQL. The site is hosted on our server here:

    http://ruslug.rutgers.edu/bookswap/

    I'm not completely familiar with the project - there's an "about this site" page, but no real mention of a license in regards to the php scripts being used. The author's link is on the about page - try emailing him.

    Hope that helps and good luck sticking it to those bastards at efollet who, whether you know it yet or not, probably run your school's bookstore!

  7. Price gouging on-campus bookstore by AsmordeanX · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In my first two years I faithfully bought my books from either the campus bookstore or the student union run bookstore (student's consign their books)

    Then I discovered Chapters (Maybe Amazon is the same) would order almost anything. Of course there was a week or two waiting period but when you are talking $63.50 versus $118.95 it is worth it.

    So if your prof. insists on using new books or has to have the latest edition, don't forget book stores. Even smaller ones can sometimes order in texts, you just have to pay in advance because they can't sell it to normal people if you don't buy.

  8. Stanford's Bookshare by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Stanford has something called "Bookshare".

    It's student developed and student maintained. Basically, you sign up and then list any books you own but don't currently need. By searching through the combined listings, you can usually find copies of your required textbooks for free. Then you return them at the end of the quarter/semester.

    share.stanford.edu is the general site, and it includes subsections for books, music and movies.

    I've used it myself and found the textbook library very useful. The textbook library is linked to the current course offerings, so it all works quite efficiently.

    Great clean user interface, and a simple concept. Could serve as a great model for an opensource effort, in my opinion.

  9. highly advanced by BenjyD · · Score: 5, Funny

    At uni, we had this highly advanced object oriented system called a notice board. Students with books to sell instantiated a notice object (potentially sub-classed to add funcionality such as tear off phone numbers strips) and a drawing pin object. Combine the two with the singleton class noticeboard object and you have an advert.