Textbooks will be available in store and online starting next semester
Brandon Bell
Contributing Writer
On Tuesday, Nov. 1, the Florence O. Wilson Bookstore announced in an e-mail to students that it would once again carry and sell textbooks in store and online.
This announcement reverses last year’s decision to outsource textbook sales to another company, MBS Direct. Students began ordering textbooks through the new system in January of this year. Kevin Leitner, who became director of bookstore retail operations in September, emphasized it was the campus culture that led his team to the decision to return textbooks to the store starting next semester.
“We’re not a campus that does a lot of outsourcing,” Leitner said. “After a review, [we realized] it matched more of the Wooster experience to have those books in hand, for the store to be able to connect with students.”
Even though the decision was carried out under a previous director of bookstore operations, he said that financial concerns were likely one of the major reasons textbooks were originally outsourced.
“You can reduce inventory costs [and] operational costs,” Leitner said, referring to the benefits of outsourcing. Although he came to Wooster supporting in-store textbook sales, he acknowledged that outsourcing has been talked of as a trend among college bookstores nationwide.
While MBS Direct itself operated relatively smoothly, with the bookstore receiving no more requests for customer service or technical help than normal, the adjustment to the bookstore’s new role did present other difficulties.
For example, Leitner explained how the textbooks assigned for two sections of a course had been accidentally switched. Because the books weren’t carried in-store, the bookstore wasn’t able to quickly provide a solution.
“We couldn’t put our hands in to fix problems,” Leitner said. “There were issues like that, where we were less effective than we could be.”
During a year-long review of the outsourcing through MBS Direct, which began before Leitner arrived, the bookstore sought campus feedback on the system.
The National Student Watch Survey, in which Wooster students recently had the opportunity to participate, was one recent example.
In addition to feedback about outsourcing, the survey offered the bookstore information on what format of textbooks students prefer and on how best to provide affordable options like rentals, e-books and loose-leaf texts. “It tells us where students are buying, how much they’re paying […] and what’s most important [to them],” Leitner said, noting that it could otherwise be difficult to evaluate what was most important for students when purchasing textbooks.
Faculty also had concerns about textbooks arriving for the start of classes and being affordable for students. For these reasons, their general feedback strongly supported the sale of textbooks in-store.
In the semester ahead, the bookstore will operate much as it had in the years before MBS Direct. An online comparison tool will enable students to continue to compare pricing options with online retailers.
Buyback will also continue for textbooks at the end of this semester. However, in the future, Leitner said that they were making several renewed commitments to the campus.
“There’ll be two major things that you’ll notice from us. One is a commitment to making sure students get what they need,” he said, noting the strong effect having course materials early had on student academic performance. “[Also,] to the degree we can offer affordable choices […] we want to give students the option.”