Long lines, long hours and uncooperative weather couldn’t stop the textbook rental workers from getting their job done.

Textbook rental opened on Thursday Jan. 3, but barely had any customers until Sunday, according to Amy Jones, supervisor at textbook rental.

Brothers and Charleston residents Anthony and Ian Ippolito have worked since Friday.

Ian, who is a freshman at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, has worked at textbook rental for a year.

He said the past couple days have been crazy with nonstop work.

Working long hours, from 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. with two breaks and a half hour lunch, Ian said he enjoys the downtime when they are not too busy.

Anthony, who is a junior at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, has worked at textbook rental for three years. He said Monday was extremely busy for the workers.

“The whole place was packed,” Anthony said.

Mallory Ahrens, a sophomore Elementary Education major, missed Monday’s rush, but said Tuesday was busy.

Even though Tuesday was her first day working at textbook rental, she hasn’t had any problems.

“Someone showed me what to do, and I caught on pretty easily,” Ahrens said.

She said the set up is nice and easy to follow, it is just finding the numbers that match the books.

Ahrens said she likes the job because it works around her class schedule and since it’s on campus, she can walk to work.

Handing out books is not the workers’ only responsibility. According to Anthony, the staff has to make sure the shelves are stocked in the morning, the counters are clean at night, and bring books from the basement upstairs during the day to keep the shelves stocked.

The staff also agreed that there have been few problems and complaints in the past week.

Ian said some students might complain if a book looks used because they are afraid they will be charged. His brother said he had different complaints.

“People say the process if ineffective, but I think it works fine,” Anthony said.

Eilidh Hall, a junior Elementary Education major, agreed with Anthony.

Even though workers said Monday was the busiest day, Hall said she went right before it closed, and it only took 20 minutes to get her books.

Hall said the worker at the door made sure everyone was moving in as far as possible to get as many people through the door as they could, to escape the cold wind outside.

“The people inside worked fast to get everyone their books and out of the building,” she said.

Sara Cuadrado can be reached at 581-7942 or at slcuadrado@eiu.edu.

Emily Schweizer, a junior hospitality major, helps a fellow student check out textbooks for the semester. (Mitch Surprenant

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