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The Cornell Store is continually working to find ways to help students manage their investment in course materials. Efforts include:
- searching the market for low-priced used books, and passing those savings on to students through lower used and rental prices;
- offering an online price comparison tool so students can compare textbook prices from The Cornell Store and other online merchants;
- offering rental textbooks; offering tens of thousands of money-saving used books;
- expanding our selection of lower-priced eBooks;
- returning over $1 million to students each year through Textbook Buyback;
- educating faculty on cost-conscious textbook adoption strategies;
- helping faculty produce custom coursepacks that consolidate academic materials from multiple sources into one cost-effective product.
Within 24 hours of enrolling in classes, students have access to their personalized booklist, which includes the required and optional books for their registered courses as well as the available formats. Instructions for viewing your list. A student can also view textbooks by course without logging in, if they haven’t enrolled in classes yet or want to see what course materials will be used in a particular class.
When viewing your booklist, you can view prices for each title and the available formats (new, rental, used, digital). You can compare prices from several other online book sellers directly on The Cornell Store website as well.
Renting Textbooks
Many students are only interested in using some textbooks for the duration of a class. Renting for a semester typically costs less than half of the new book price. Renting removes the risk of how much the book may be worth at the end of the semester and you can capture the savings up front instead of waiting for Textbook Buyback at the end of the term. If you decide to keep the book, you can purchase it at any time during the rental period for the difference between the new rental fee and the current new selling price or the used rental fee and the current used selling price, based on whether the book was rented in new or used condition at the time of the transaction.
Renting provides a lower up-front cost. In some cases, it can be less expensive to buy a used text (when available) and sell it at buyback. There is always the chance that the text won’t be bought back if a newer edition is published or if the professor switches to a different book, so renting ensures some cost savings.
Learn more about textbook rentals and returns.
Purchasing Used Textbooks
When viewing your booklist, you’ll be able to see if there are used versions of the books required available.
Textbook Buy-Back
At the end of the term, students are encouraged to sell any unwanted textbooks. During a typical term, The Cornell Store offers semester end buyback in in the store. Due to the current circumstances, The Cornell Store is providing buyback options virtually for students to sell unwanted textbooks. These vendors will provide a quote, prepaid shipping label, and issue direct payment. More information about textbook buy-back.
Alternative Content Delivery
Digital Course Materials
Over sixty percent of textbook titles are available digitally and cost up to 60% less than print text books. If course materials are available digitally, you will see this when you view your booklist. Learn more about digital course materials.
Instant Access
The Instant Access program delivers digital course materials directly to students’ Canvas Learning Management System (LMS) profile on or before the first day of class at a significantly reduced price. The Instant Access Program will be the default way for you to receive your materials for the classes utilizing the Instant Access Program. Learn more about the Instant Access Program.
Free Access from the Library
Textbooks and other required readings can often be borrowed from the LIbrary without any cost to the student.
Search to see if the needed item is in the Library’s regular collection. Print books can be checked out for 8 weeks (undergraduates) or 6 months (graduate students.) The Library also has an extensive collection of e-books that can be accessed from anywhere. Materials can also be requested from partner libraries.
Faculty often arrange for their course materials (print and electronic) to be available in the Library as short term loans called Course Reserves. If the required item is not listed yet, students can submit requests for the Library to purchase an item to add to Course Reserves.
Alternatives Library - Semester Long Textbook Loans
Though currently closed, the Durland Alternatives Library hopes to open for Fall 2021. Before ordering expensive textbooks, check to see if they have them available for semester long loan.
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