Lines at some bookstores may look extra long as students prepare for spring semester, but Shawn Bourdo said it’s never as bad as it looks.

“We have been preparing for book rush since the second week of fall,” said Bourdo, books manager at the MSU Bookstore.

Bourdo said 20 to 25 additional employees were hired, additional registers were opened and the store was rearranged to accommodate the extra students buying books.

“It’s a challenge, but it should not be a headache,” he said. “We want to make it an easy thing.”

Student Book Store, 421 E. Grand River Ave., has also taken measures for the spring book rush.

“We hire 150 extra students to help the students,” general manager Howard Ballein said. “We have enough people to help you when you are confused.”

Jerry Parr, text manager at Ned’s Book Store, 135 E. Grand River Ave., said today is an important day to be prepared.

“(The) first day of spring semester is the biggest selling day of the year,” he said.

But Parr recommends students visit the bookstores before the rush to find used books because they are the first to be sold.

Students vary as to what book-buying methods they prefer.

Mechanical engineering sophomore Kyle Sutton said he is waiting until Tuesday to buy his books.

“By then, I’ve gone to all my classes and gotten the syllabus,” Sutton said. “That way, if the bookstores have the wrong thing, I won’t have to go back.”

Others prefer to avoid the bookstores completely.

Human biology senior Jennifer Best said buying books online is a good choice that can save students money.

“Bookstores are ridiculous,” she said. “If they want to sell (books) for that much, they should give more money back to students.”

Online Web sites such as Bookswap, which is set up by ASMSU, MSU’s undergraduate student government, offer students an alternative to buy and sell their books via the Internet without a shipping fee.

Best is registered to use Bookswap and said it is a helpful way to buy and sell books.

“I think if even 50 percent of students start using it, they would save a lot of money and help others save too,” Best said.

Jared English, an international relations junior and ASMSU Academic Assembly representative for James Madison College, said there are close to 300 users registered with Bookswap and about 400 posted requests to buy or sell books.

English said students who use the Web site agree on the book price over the Internet and then personally meet to swap the books.

“I have personally used it, and saved about $100 going that way,” he said.