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Contact Zone Project

bothsidesnow's picture

I saw that there is already a post about the contact zone of buyingselling/giving items between students however I'm thinking an interesting idea would be the buying and selling of textbooks at Bryn Mawr. I know that the bookstore is now independent and has the buyback program, and am wondering how much that has changed how many students get textbooks directly from Bryn Mawr instead of online sellers such as Amazon or Chegg. Many students also sell textbooks on Facebook in a different group from the "For free or sale!" one. Living in a world where textbooks can be and usually are ridiculously expensive, it would be fascinating to see how different students at Bryn Mawr acquire theirs. Some questions would be "which is the most cost-efficient way to get textbooks?" and "Is it worth it to have the latest edition?" and "Do professors really care what exact textbooks (edition/year/annotated/brand-new) students use in class?". I'm not sure how exactly this project would be done but I think surveys would be a key component.