Posted at Monday, August 22, 2005  EDT  

BooksForSchool.ca aims to cut education costs

JACK KAPICA,  Globe and Mail Update

Tired of paying the high prices of school textbooks, a group of Toronto university students has taken the idea of the book exchange on-line.

Called BooksForSchool.ca, the exchange uses a social-networking concept to link students within similar schools and courses.

BooksForSchool.ca is a completely free service for university and college students by making direct exchanges of post-secondary textbooks between students. Members may also buy or sell their new and used textbooks without surcharges.

The site was created out of a concern for spiralling costs of education, including tuition and living expenses as well as textbook fees, BooksForSchool.ca's Lawson Hennick said in a statement.

"Textbook fees continue to rise and schools continue to devalue buyback offers on used textbooks," he said. "BooksForSchool.ca allows students to determine the price of textbooks without the added expense of the middleman."

The website matches students with others across Canada who have the textbooks they need. On-line tools automatically inform students by e-mail when a required textbook becomes available. The exchange is completely free to buy, sell or trade textbooks so students can retain much more of their initial investment when selling their textbooks on-line.

One of the problems with textbooks is that they become outdated, and need to be replaced, said website developer Paul Levine. But, he added, BooksForSchool.ca has been made into a national site, so when books are outdated in one province, they might retain full value in another.

Founded in 2003, BooksForSchool.ca pioneered the country wide on-line textbook exchange service in Canada. In 2005, BooksForSchool.ca combined textbook swapping with social networking, enabling students to decrease their expenses and make it easier to buy and sell new and used textbooks.