Carina Smith
Features editor
csmit367@jccc.edu
As the semester comes to a close, the bookstore is getting ready for rentals to be returned and preparing to start buying back textbooks. Some books, however, won’t make it back on the shelf for the spring semester.
A damaged textbook is usually characterized by certain things. If the binding is falling apart, the book has been waterlogged, or the pages are missing, the book is considered damaged. If there is excessive marking with pen or highlighter, it could be considered damaged depending on how many marks there are in the book.
Students who have a damaged rented textbook will have to take their books back to the bookstore and pay for a replacement. Bookstore manager Jennifer Keffer advises students to bring their damaged textbooks back to the bookstore as soon as they can so the bookstore can help them get an undamaged textbook.
“If you have any inkling that there is a problem with the book you bought from us, bring it back as soon as you get it because we can do something then,” Keffer said. “If you don’t and you wait, you’re going to be stuck with the book and you’re not going to be happy with me, especially when you have to pay the replacement value on the book.”
Students don’t bring back their rented textbooks more often than they bring back damaged books. This causes problems with the bookstore, which has to order new textbooks, and with the students who have to pay for a whole new textbook. Students who don’t take the textbooks back will either be charged to the account that they had bought the books with or there will be a hold on their accounts.
Textbooks that students have bought and can’t be sold back can be donated to the bookstore, where they will sell them to students for a wholesale price.
“Take care of your books, get them back to me on time, and we don’t have these problems,” Keffer said. “If you have a damaged book, bring it into me as soon as you get it so I can do something about it. There are a lot of different things we can do, but the earlier you come to me the better off you’re going to be.”