UPJ students can find a new and more cost-effective way to  acquire textbooks.

Two weeks before the fall semester, UPJ bookstore manager John Ziats organized a new system to rent textbooks.

With such a late start, many students may not realize that renting is an option, including sophomore Shawn Scheponik, who was standing outside of the bookstore.

“I didn’t know that they offered book rentals,” he said. “I would definitely use this system.”

However, not all textbooks are available from the UPJ online bookstore.

“Some classes change their textbooks every semester or two so we don’t try to rent out these books to students (because they would not be useful when returned after the rental period),” Ziats said.

The online rentals offered are competitive with  popular online sites including www.chegg.com , which includes a similar textbook-rental options.

For  example, McKnight’s Physical Geography textbook costs $44.83 for a one-semester UPJ rental, Chegg offers the book for the same amount of time and costs $50.49.

If students are interested in the rental option, they would need to access the bookstore via my.pitt.edu. Selecting the option to rent, setting up an account to rent, typing in their 13-digit international standard book number and then selecting the amount of time to rent.

Students are to receive their books within three to five days, but they maychoose an overnight delivery option.