College students go online to avoid bookstore lines

Jennifer Knight

Friday, Sept. 20, 2002 | 9:24 a.m.

This year Jarvie Hansen traded long lines for online when she bought her college textbooks.

"I got all of my books online this year except for one," said Hansen, a junior majoring in nursing at the new Nevada State College at Henderson. "I'm just too lazy to get them at a bookstore. This way I can just sit down and order them."

Students who swear by online textbooks say it is cheaper and more convenient than the traditional route. And all of Southern Nevada's college bookstores have joined in competing for ever-increasing online textbooks sales.

"As we have a larger and larger population of Internet-savvy students, I think that more students are going to turn to online bookstores just as a matter of convenience," said Stan Hasard, manager of the campus bookstore at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

UNLV's bookstore is owned by Barnes & Noble and promotes its online bookstore, which competes with the likes of VarsityBooks.com and BigWords.com, two of the heaviest hitters in the business.

Students at Nevada State College use online book services because the newly opened institution does not have an in-house bookstore. College officials are offering 24 courses and recommended Internet bookstores to the school's 178 students.

Institutions nationwide are jumping onto the online textbook bandwagon. About 96 percent of the nation's campus bookstores now have online textbook services.

Last year online sales generated $130 million, and sales continue to go up, according to a report by the National Association of College Stores.

Even UNLV's competitor across the street, Rebel Bookstore, has a piece of the action. This year online sales shot up to 400 orders from 25 the previous year, said Jeanne Field, manager of Rebel Bookstore.

Field noted that she still gets as many walk-in customers as she always has.

But there's a price to pay for clicking and buying online, students say. Most companies charge a fee. Selling textbooks back at the end of the year is often a hassle -- and there is always a chance the book won't arrive in time.

"Only one of my books arrived on time," said Jessica Ordich, 21, a sophomore English major at the state college.

Ordich said this year, some of her teachers had posted the list of books just days before school opened, leaving her with a time crunch.