Barnes & Noble to begin offering textbook rentals to students

From the Chronicle of Higher Ed:

Barnes & Noble's college-bookstore division has entered the growing field of textbook rental for college students, the bookseller announced Monday. After testing the waters with a pilot program, the service has expanded. It will allow students to rent textbooks through campus-bookstore Web sites at 25 college campuses or through the Barnes & Noble stores on those campuses. Students can pay for the service in several different ways, including financial aid and campus debit cards. The rental service will compete with other lenders such as Chegg and CourseSmart.

Here's more from B & N's press release:

Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller, announced today that it has created a multi-channel textbook rental program for college students that could result in millions of dollars of savings for college students across America.  Barnes & Noble College is the first nationwide bookseller to offer a multi-channel program.
 
Barnes & Noble College has made the program easy for students, enabling them to rent their textbooks from the comfort of their dorm or home simply by logging into their campus bookstore’s e-commerce site.  They can also rent from their campus Barnes & Noble bookstore.  This innovative rental program gives students the added flexibility of paying for their rentals using any form of tender, including campus debit cards and student financial aid.

Hat tip to the Chronicle of Higher Ed.

(jbl)