The Textbook Rental Service is one that is used by every student on campus.

In the few days before classes begin each fall and spring semester, students flock to the building behind Carman Hall to collect the books they need for the first day of class.

Susan Allen, who is in charge of textbook assignments at Textbook Rental, and Christina Coffey, who is in charge of customer service, said Eastern students can save up to 80 percent on textbooks from the list price each semester.

Eastern students pay $9.95 per credit hour for their textbooks, which is only a $1 increase since the new building was built in 2010.

Coffey said although each course is only supposed to be allotted $100, the Textbook Rental staff makes arrangements so students do not have to pay extra.

“If we had to purchase our books, students would have to switch to the new edition every semester or every year,” Coffey said.

She said each semester, if a professor increases the number of seats in a class, Textbook Rental has to order additional books.

“For summer and fall additionals, we spent over a million dollars on those alone,” Coffey said.

Both Coffey and Allen said things change from semester to semester because professors can add or drop seats in their classes.

“We have an allotted budget that we use, and if students lose or have to pay for a book, all those funds go back into our budget,” she said.

Coffey also mentioned that late fees and drop fines aid Textbook Rental’s budget.

“We’re seeing a lot less late fees since the 24-hour drop book was installed,” Allen said.

The Textbook Rental staff works year-round, but both Allen and Coffey said the two weeks before and after the beginning of the semester are the busiest.

“We’re already getting ready to order the new books for spring,” Coffey said.

Back in 1899 when the Textbook Rental service was started, Allen said the cost of book rental was significantly lower.

“Back then, the rental fee was only a dollar,” Allen said.

She said the difference between how things are run at the new Textbook Rental building are drastically different from how things used to be run at the old rental place on Edgar Drive.

“Students would stand an hour or more outside and the lines were so long,” Allen said.

Coffey said some of the changes Textbook Rental is seeing for the future include the increased digitalization of textbooks.

“We have an electronic digital task force that we’ve started,” Coffey said. “We’re not very far with it, but we’re just trying to figure out more plans for the digital age.”

Coffey said the task force needs to be prepared to deal not just with digital textbooks, but with software as well.

“We’re trying to see how we can incorporate technology more if teachers request to use it,” she said. “Some instructors will ask about it, but it’s not a lot of them yet.”

Robyn Dexter can be reached at 581-2812 or redexter@eiu.edu.