Shortly before the New Year, The Alamo II initiated a program designed to lower the cost of textbooks and allow students to have the option of renting or purchasing said textbooks.

Larry Ernat, assistant manager for The Alamo II, said the program began after the parent company, Nebraska Book Corporation, created the program for all its stores.

“It’s a good move. When you give students the option to save money, of course they are going to utilize it,” he said. “I’m glad we were introduced to this program, and I’m glad we are able to provide this kind of opportunity to students.”

Ernat said the corporation is still testing the program, but said it has already received a strong enough response from the student population that he believes it will be here to stay.

“We won’t know how well it actually does until probably the end of the semester, but we’ve definitely seen a lot of activity with it,” he said.

“There have been more than a few students who have inquired more about it because they heard about the program through word of mouth, and it’s becoming more well-known as we speak.”

The Alamo II currently offers 20 percent of its total books as available to rent. He said no discussion has been made about whether or not to spread the number of titles, since some will go out of circulation at given points in time.

“As I look through some of these textbooks, I see that they can reach as high as $200, so when we offer the renting program, they can save as much as $100 by just renting the title instead of buying it,” he said.

“After a while, you might see that you have anywhere from two to $300 in your pocket. What student doesn’t like to have some money to spend?”

Rented titles will not be available for buy back, and The Alamo II will only accept books in sellable condition, meaning students will have the option to write and highlight in the books during the semester.

At the end of the year, students who rented will be notified via e-mail, at which point they will be given the option to buy the book or return it.

If the book is returned after the due date, the student will be charged the balance of the book plus an additional 10 percent fee.

Anne Harner, store manager for the Barnes & Noble University Bookstore, said parent company Barnes & Noble College Booksellers has initiated a textbook rental program, but it has not yet reached the Bone Student Center store.

“Right now, they’re only testing this program in a few of the stores across the nation,” she said.

A press release from the parent company said the program was tested in three of the 636 college stores at the beginning of the fall 2009 semester. Since then, the program has expanded to 25 stores.

Chegg.com was founded in 2007 after creators Aayush Phumbhra and Osman Rashid believed there was a smarter, more cost-effective solution to textbooks.

Inspired by the idea of Netflix, the two created the Web site in hopes that Chegg will transform the world of textbook rental.

The Web site offers over 4.2 million titles to over 6,400 college campuses in the country.

“Chegg’s popularity has grown tremendously. In two years, we have saved students over $100 million and planted more than 2 million trees…and we’re not stopping,” Tina Couch, public relations manager for Chegg, said.