After months of work, ASMSU members put some of the finishing touches on the organization’s textbook exchange Web site Wednesday.
MSU’s undergraduate student government will have the site running by the end of the semester, after it’s tested and all the details are worked out.
The site will operate like a message board, in which students can set their own prices to exchange textbooks with other students.
Jared English, an Academic Assembly representative for James Madison College, has been watching the site’s progress and said the timing couldn’t be better.
“This would be the best time to use the site to the full potential, for both selling and buying,” he said.
The international relations and finance sophomore said the book exchange should appeal to students because it’s free, unlike others that charge students. The entire site is funded by ASMSU.
Thanks to two bills passed in October, the site will be regularly updated by Gary Bernadel, director of site, and publicized after it’s completion.
English said there were a lot of legal hurdles to surpass while completing the project and he couldn’t have done it alone.
Computer science sophomore Dan Peck was asked to help with the project.
“I found some different bulletin board packages online and I just modified them slightly to what they needed,” Peck said. “It’s pretty easy to use, so I hope the turnout will be pretty good.”
Ken Kerbyson, store manager for The College Store, 4790 S. Hagadorn Road, said buy-back time is an exciting time of year and he’s expecting another big crowd.
He said he really doesn’t consider Internet book exchanges as major competition because it’s hard to keep them updated, especially with more than 5,000 new titles each semester.
As a student at Eastern Michigan University, Kerbyson said the student government there tried a similar book swap, but it wasn’t effective.
“Students want to sell their books, get their money and have a good holiday,” he said.
But English said he intends to keep this project from faltering, the best way he can.
“Every year, we’ll push the advertising and hopefully it gets more and more people interested,” he said.
When the book exchange is ready, students may access it by visiting www.asmsu.org and clicking on the book swap link.
