Sophomore saves students some dough

(Andy Swetz | The Informer)

To combat the steep textbook prices imposed by the University Bookstore, one student is offering relief in the form of a helpful website he created called BooksatHartford.com.

Think of it as a virtual bargain hunter where prices are compared in real time and displayed in front of you for each class subject you look up. Searching and price checking are a thing of the past because Books @ Hartford does the work for you, for free.

“It is a lot easier than Amazon alone because it’s unique to our University,” creator Jordan Haberman said.

The sophomore and soon to be Business major is excited about the Hartford edition of the comparative website.

“I got the idea from a mutual friend of Sean Haufler, the creator of Books @ Yale. He created the original and I wrote the code for the course catalog for Hartford, putting in the individual classes and books,” Haberman said.

Aimed at simplifying the way students at the University search for and purchase their books, the website is an innovation that can prove to be a valuable resource. Comparing the Bookstore price with prices at Barnes & Noble as well as Amazon, the majority of the time it makes practical sense to order a book via the web versus surrendering extra cash to the Bookstore.

A clean and simple concept, Books @ Hartford was created by students for students.

“I want students to realize you can get books cheaper than the Bookstore and that our website is a good alternative to that,” Haberman said.

Still in its early stages since being installed here at the University, Haberman launched the Hartford edition just two weeks before the start of the spring semester.

Although the website bears the claim that it is not responsible for the accuracy of what books are required for any given class, a quick glance confirms that there are a few anomalies in the system such as the omission of a required text for a given class, information that Haberman gets directly from Self-Service Center.

The website provides the gap between having one option and having the best option when it comes to pricing out the cheapest required text.

Haberman hopes to spread his version of Books @ Hartford to as many students as possible to maximize the savings students can get.

As far as University intervention into Haberman’s project, there has been none but he believes it should be the individual’s choice to use whatever means necessary to get the best deal, especially since the Bookstore mark up is so large.