ASUCLA allows students to compare textbook prices online
ASUCLA launched a website to compile vendors and offer cheaper textbooks to UCLA students. (Zoe Hessler/Daily Bruin)
By Shweta Chawla
Jan. 7, 2016 1:07 a.m.
This quarter, UCLA students can compare prices of textbooks sold by different vendors on an Associated Students UCLA-launched website extension.
The extension, introduced as part of the ASUCLA textbook website, lists options for course materials available from different companies such as Amazon, AbeBooks and Barnes & Noble.
Neil Yamaguchi, ASUCLA academic support director, said he thinks the change will make the process of ordering textbooks more transparent by acknowledging cheaper retailers. The website lists sellers that employees think are popular with undergraduate students.
Yamaguchi said he thinks the biggest drawback is that the website is not comprehensive, because it’s impossible to have a list of every vendor that sells a particular book.
“It would be very cumbersome if every vendor is listed, so we won’t necessarily always have the lowest price of the textbook available,” he said.
Judy Hoong, a first-year business economics student, said she thinks the website was very useful because she didn’t have to browse several different vendors to compare prices for the same textbook.
Emma Lin, a first-year business economics student, and Eshan Kumar, a first-year bioengineering student, said they were unfamiliar with the changes to the website.
Jana Sandhu, a first-year biology student, said she uses the site to browse the store’s prices before looking for cheaper options on Facebook pages.
Yamaguchi said ASUCLA decided to implement the change because it has been successful in other schools, but did not provide a cost analysis or estimates of its financial benefits to ASUCLA.
“It’s the first quarter for us, so it’s more of a learning experience,” Yamaguchi said.
