Harvard Coop Discourages Notetaking in Bookstore

No wonder students are transposing the ISBN numbers when writing them down.  They are in such a hurry to not get caught by the bookstore employees they write down the wrong ISBN.  Thats one of the reasons I founded TextBack.net.  Sounds crazy  that the bookstore has to ask students to leave because they writing down the numbers just to save money if not their own then their parents hard earned cash.

Here is the article about a student being asked to leave the bookstore.

Taking notes in class may be encouraged, but apparently it can get you kicked out of the Coop.

Jarret A. Zafran ’09 said he was asked to leave the Coop after writing down the prices of six books required for a junior Social Studies tutorial he hopes to take.

“I’m a junior and every semester I do the same thing. I go and look up the author and the cost and order the ones that are cheaper online and then go back to the Coop to get the rest,” Zafran said.

“I’m not a rival bookstore, I’m a student with an I.D.,” he added.

Coop President Jerry P. Murphy ’73 said that while there is no Coop policy against individual students copying down book information, “we discourage people who are taking down a lot of notes.”

More here: http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=519564

Why text messaging for TextBooks is a good idea

We joke about it on our web site TextBack.net .  Humorously naming a fake condition ”Chronic ISBN Transposition”.  As if it were some kind of disease.   Seriously though you can write down the wrong number or switch number positions which is transposing.  Therefore you have the wrong ISBN and will have to go back to the campus book store.

But isn’t it better to text us the ISBN to confirm you have the right textbook when you go online?  I mean after you send us a text message we can send you online pricing and the title.  But even more importantly we store the book in a mobile cart you can access later on TextBack.net.  Then you click to Purchase from Amazon Market Place.

If you happen to send the wrong ISBN or one that doesn’t exist.  We will be able to tell you right then.  We show you what ISBN was sent to us.  You send another SMS and get the correct textbook placed into your mobile cart.

We have made it very simple to do this while at the bookstore. Simply send keyword ISBN followed by the 10 digit ISBN number to 4INFO (44636). 

The system is good for any book not just textbooks.  Just remember 4INFO and ISBN.

Cheers!

-Randy