Purchasing Textbooks
Students may start to purchase textbooks upon arrival on campus. Saturday is usually a good time to come in to the bookstore, located on the first floor of the Hogan Campus Center, because the upperclassmen have not yet arrived on campus, so the bookstore is less crowded.
What to Bring with You
You should bring your course registration card, which contains course and section numbers, to the bookstore when you come to purchase books for the semester. In order to locate your books within the store, you’ll need the course abbreviation, the course number and the section number with the professor’s name.
Example: The course number assigned to Anthropology 101 section 01 with Professor Rogers would be ANTH 101 - 01 Rogers.
Finding Your Books
With the course registration information, you can go to the appropriate (i.e. Anthropology ) section of the bookstore. The bookstore uses the exact same course abbreviations and section numbers to identify the books that are found on your registration card.
To purchase books for a course, you should first find the shelf card with that exact course abbreviation and section number on it (i.e. ANTH 101-01 Rogers). Next, read the card to find out the author and title of the correct textbook, then look above the card to find the book.
Make sure that the book on the shelf is the same as the book listed on the card. Notice that at the bottom of each bookstore shelf card there are two numbers. These numbers refer to the number of books that must be purchased for the course on the registration list.
Example: ANTH 101-01 Rogers has five books required for the Fall semester. At the bottom of the first card on the shelf for this course there is a message "BOOK #1 of 5". This refers to the fact that there are five required textbooks for the course and that this book is the first book in the sequence. The remaining books should follow as BOOK 2 of 5, BOOK 3 of 5 etc.
At times, the shelf is not long enough for the number of books in the class so the sequence wraps around to the shelf below or to the next section of shelving. Be sure to purchase all of the required books for each course.
The courses are arranged in alphabetical order by course abbreviation starting with ANTH (for anthropology) and continuing through the store to VAST (Visual Arts Studies). ANTH is located on the left wall of the bookstore as you walk in the front doors. The courses follow in alphabetical order, left to right, top to bottom to the back of the store. There are signs on top of the book islands to guide you to the correct area for course abbreviations. Once you have found the correct course abbreviation, the course numbers should follow in ascending order.
If you are unable to find a course number, make sure you are in the correct aisle and that the course numbers do not continue on another shelf. If you are still unable to find a course number, ask one of our textbook associates for help. It's possible that the course does not require any textbooks or that the course is cross listed with another course. Remember, only buy the books that have a shelf tag with your exact course and section number on it.
Recommended Readings
Some courses have pink shelf cards at the end of the sequence of required books for that course. These cards denote "recommended" textbooks for the course. We suggest that the student attend class and see his or her instructor before purchasing these recommended books.
What to Do if You are Unsure About a Course
If you are sure of your courses, you should buy all of your books as soon as you can. If you are thinking about adding or dropping a course, please do not purchase these books until you know whether or not you are taking a particular course. The number of books available for students in each course corresponds to the actual enrollment for that course. If a student who is not yet in a course purchases the books for that course it could effect the number of books available to those students who are legitimately enrolled.