“I would prefer to rent, but I didn’t know they offered it here,” said Paola Bazaldua, a 19-year-old biology major.

The new service, a collaboration between the campus bookstore* and Bookrenter, was introduced in June. According to Executive Vice President Jack Friedlander almost all books should be available as rentals.

An online search Sep. 2 supports that claim. For 25 introductory classes, including Psychology, International Business and Journalism, 19 textbooks were available for rent.

But sales as of Aug. 31 suggest students have been slow to adopt the program.

In fact, students placed less than 200 orders since rentals were first offered during summer session. That was more than 12 weeks ago. During the first week of fall semester only about 40 orders were placed, according to John Lorelli, the Director of Bookstore Services.

He insists that the low figures aren’t a result of poor advertising by the bookstore.

“Nobody reads posters outside the store,” he said. But information can be found on posters and notes inside the store, on the college website, as well as the bookstore’s own commercial site.

The only revenue allowed for the bookstore from rentals is an 8% commission. Bookrenter also stipulates that the store can’t stock or own any of the material offered on the website.

But Lorelli stays positive about the rental prospect.

“Nobody knows better than us how ridiculous the prices of textbooks are,” he said. “It’s my job to make this work, and I’ll do it to meet the needs of the students.”

And while many students say they didn’t know they could even rent, others like 21-year-old computer science major John Craighead don’t have any interest in the service.

“I generally buy my books because I can sell them online after the semester,” he said. “If the instructor still wants them.”

And there those, like computer science major Paul Martin, who simply prefer to own their books rather than “baby” a rented copy.

Bookrenter’s policies online clearly state that renters will “be charged the buyout price for the book” if it’s damaged.