Bookstore offers online books
By Chris Lusk, Staff Writer
Students looking to avoid the rush at the bookstore next semester need look no further than the Internet.
Bookstore Director Bren-da Reinke said, beginning Aug. 1, the bookstore’s website — http://bookstore.occc.edu — will allow students to order textbooks online.
“We are in the process of finalizing it to be ready for the start of the fall semester,” Reinke said. “We’re excited to add this new feature to our site.”
With the new site, students will be able to order books from the college bookstore with a credit card. The bookstore will ship the books for a fee that starts at $11.95, she said.
Reinke said books ordered online would have to be shipped and could not be picked up at the store.
“We have thought about the possibility of a book pickup or a book reservation program,” she said, “but there are issues to be dealt with first.”
Having enough staffing, determining where to store pickup orders and designating an area within the store to place a pickup station are some of the issues at this time, Reinke said.
“Hopefully, one day, we could make that happen,” she said. “But right now, getting the online ordering running is our focus.”
She said online ordering isn’t the only modification being made. The site also will be upgraded so that it’s easier to navigate.
Currently, students are able to browse through the store’s textbook selection online and learn general information, Reinke said. However, she said, the site can be a bit confusing.
“Our site is just not user-friendly.
“Many people have difficulty finding exactly what books they need for the classes they are taking.”
Biology major Sarah Hale said the new change to the bookstore website would make book buying a much easier experience.
“I never know what books I need,” Hale said.
“Last semester I tried using the bookstore website to get an idea of what I was looking for before going and fighting everyone else buying their books at the same time, but it wasn’t helpful at all.
“I had to go in and wander around forever, trying to figure out what I was looking for.”
Reinke said, too often, she sees students coming into the bookstore, unsure of what they are looking for.
She said the online inprovements will help in that area as well.
“Students want to know a price, what they need and what to budget for,” Reinke said.
“By making it easier for them to browse our web-site, they can get a better idea of what they need before coming in to the store.”
Eventually, Reinke said, the bookstore plans to add other features on the web-site such as offering college merchandise and gift cards for sale.
She said these features should be added during the fall semester.
She said there also are plans to install in-store kiosks before the spring semester which would process student’s schedules through MineOnline, and print out a list of every required and optional book for each class.
Reinke said these kiosks would help make the textbook buying experience quicker and smoother.
“Hopefully, we will be able to get [the kiosks] running by the end of the fall,” she said.
The decision to modify the website was made in conjunction with the bookstore upgrading its software and computer system — which was more than 10 years old.
“We began plans for the system upgrade in February,” Reinke said.
“I wanted to see what else we could work on and improve since we were already working on it.”
Reinke said the book-store’s website was something she had been interested in improving since she began working there.
“I never did like the website,” she said.
“I started looking around at other college’s sites and I noticed that theirs were more flexible than ours.”
Reinke said she wrote a proposal for the funds to overhaul both the system and the website.
The cost to upgrade the entire store system, redevelop the website and to train the staff totaled more than $50,000, which was paid for through the college budget, she said.
Reinke said the cost was well worth it.
“We’re all about the customer,” Reinke said.
“We’re always open to new ideas to improve our services.”
Staff Writer Chris Lusk can be reached at Staff-Writer1@occc.edu.
