Steve Blasko, senior technology major, tries to get his textbooks at the library. When he can’t, he goes online.

“The first thing I’ll check is OhioLink,” Blasko said. “Why pay when you can get your books for free? Then I’ll go to Half.com or Amazon.com.”

Increasingly, students are looking online to find textbooks at a cheaper price.

Abebooks.com is targeting 16 colleges including Kent State. The 10-year-old company saw rapid growth in the online textbook industry about two years ago.

In August and September, Abebooks.com marketed directly to Kent State students by sending street teams on campus to increase brand awareness.

Students are looking for alternatives to campus bookstores, said Richard Davies, who works in public relations and publicity for Abebooks.com.

“The driving force to push students to look elsewhere is price,” he said. “By going online, you are going to get a cheaper and wider selection.”

In December, Abebooks.com polled 5,000 students and found just more than 13 percent wanted new textbooks, while 14 percent wanted to buy books that were five years or older.

Not many people re-sell their textbooks, which creates a massive demand and shortage of used textbooks, Davies said.

“Used textbooks will go very, very quickly,” he said.

Davies advises students who want to re-sell books to avoid writing in them.

“It spoils the resale value,” he said.

One of the advantages of buying textbooks online is customers are able to view the conditions of the textbooks they are purchasing, Davies said.

Students should also look for a seller that offers free shipping when shopping for textbooks online, Davies said.

“Free shipping is a good way of cutting prices down,” he said.

As students increasingly buy books online, DuBois Bookstore offers an alternative. Books-In-A-Flash allows students to submit their class schedule to DuBois, where employees will have the books ready for pickup a week before classes begin.

Manager Hal DuBois said students who have purchased their textbooks from an online bookseller will come in and say they tried to get textbooks online, but they received the wrong book.

Books-In-A-Flash allows students the opportunity to come in and inspect the books before they pay for them.

Contact news correspondent Lisa Moore [email protected].