Oracle Online

The program is called MeBookSpace, a website where college students can create a profile and list books they are hoping to buy or sell. While PiperBabble offers student-to-student book sales, Kuboscheck says it simply isn’t working because the design is not user-friendly and many people do not use it. In order to sell books on MeBookSpace, students will have to enter the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) and a price range they are willing to accept for it.

Once it’s listed, students can find it by browsing through class categories and names, and can then write an offer to the seller. Each seller will be able to choose who they would like to buy from based off of the location and price offer of the prospective buyer.

Another function of the program is the watchdog feature. Here, students create a wishlist of books they know they will need for future courses and will receive an e-mail notification once someone places the book for sale.

The site will also allow users to exchange private messages and contact information. Buyers and sellers will both be ranked after the transaction, much like the process on eBay.

One thing that differs from eBay.com, and other sell-sites like Amazon.com, Kuboschek said, is that there will be no shipping or handling costs or time delays.

“How many people do you know that buy their books the first day of class? A lot of people do that,” he said, adding that if students are able to send each other messages agreeing on a place and time to meet on the first day or two of class (once they know for sure which books a professor will be using), it can get their book to them about a week earlier than having it mailed would.

The fact that all money and books must be exchanged in person could pose a problem, however, Kuboschek said.
If that process gets abused, it could potentially put students at risk of people who take advantage of others’ trust. To help protect students from this, Kuboschek is limiting the program to local college students, so those not involved with campus community will not be able to access meeting times or contact information. If it does expand in the future, it will only be to more campuses.

Kuboschek’s idea isn’t meant to replace the buying of new books and apparel from the university bookstore, only used text.

“I think, personally, the bookstore [at Hamline] is great, just not the buybacks,” Kuboschek said, adding that low buyback rates are what make many students lose money. By having a student-run book exchange program, he says both buyer and seller can profit-the former because they will not be buying new text books and the latter because they will be able to get higher selling rates.

The site is being designed by CapStone Infoways, a New Delhi company that Kuboschek has worked with before as an information consultant. Although the site hasn’t been released yet, it is expected to go up in a month to a month-and-a-half.

“It will be live for sure before the next semester starts-people can count on that,” Kuboschek said.

While the project, like most, will cost money, Kuboschek has paid the fees as a donation to the Hamline community. He noted, however, that credit is also due elsewhere. The Hamline student body has contributed by offering ideas for new systems of book selling in his Facebook.com group Stop The Book Store Rip Offs, he said. Additionally, he said that University of Minnesota students Cory Hooyman and Quinn Kiley (who used to attend Hamline) have both assisted him in the project.

Kuboschek says that, while at some point in the future ads may appear on the site to help pay for the website server, he does not intend to take any side profits from the program. He says that the site “should not be commercialized,” as his idea in the first place was to save students money.

“The key is to get a lot of books on here and spread the word,” he said.