All about the Campus Bookstore
Hello all,
The campus bookstore, to many, may seem quite intimidating. As a first year student, you may not know exactly what you need and what you don’t. In this blog post, I want to help you navigate the campus bookstore. There are specifically 4 things I’d like to touch on:
Locating YOUR Textbooks
Bookstore Bucks
Pre-Ordering Books
Ordering Books In-Store
Locating the textbooks you will need may seem a bit challenging if you were trying on your own. But, luckily, you have me as your guide. Some professors might e-mail before the first day of class, and tell you what textbook(s) you will need for their class. There is, however, a more effective way to find the textbooks you will need for your classes. Here’s a how-to guide to locating the textbooks you will need for your classes:
Go to the UNCG homepage (uncg.edu)
Click on the UNCG Genie symbol at the top right of the page.
Click “Enter Secure Area”
Enter your User ID and your PIN into the corresponding boxes
Click the “Student” tab at the top left of the page.
Click “Registration”
Click “Buy Books”
Click the semester for which you are looking for textbooks
Click “Click Here to Go To UNCG Bookstore” (Which will direct you to another web page)
There you have it! Now you know how to find what books you will need for the semester.
Now, Bookstore Bucks may seem like a tricky thing to get the hang of. But, it’s not so scary. First, I want to start by saying that you don’t have to use Bookstore bucks, it is completely up to you. If you choose to use Bookstore Bucks, you will need to put an amount of money on your account for Bookstore Bucks that does not exceed $750.00. You will then only be able to use the money that you put on your Bookstore Bucks account in the campus bookstore or in the Starbucks that is attached to the campus bookstore. You can use Bookstore Bucks to pre-order books online, or you can use them in-store.
To Pre-Order your textbooks from the campus bookstore, you must follow the instructions listed above for finding your textbooks. Once you are on the bookstore site, you have to select whether you want to buy/rent new/used textbooks. Once you have gone through each of your textbooks and selected whether you wanted to buy/rent them new/used, then you add each book to your cart. It will ask you to log in/sign up, so do one of the two using your university email address. Then, you need to enter your billing information. After you have entered that, you need to select whether you want to pick up your books at the store, or if you want them delivered to you. Then, you just follow the instructions to finish the order. If you selected for your books to be delivered, then you will just wait for them to arrive. However, if you selected to pick them up in store, you will receive an email when your textbooks are ready for pick-up. When going to pick up your books, you will enter the bookstore and go up to the second floor, and they will have a line put in place for students picking up textbooks. You will need to provide them with the order number (which you will have received in your email) and your student ID card. Once you provide them with both of these, they will provide you with your textbooks.
When buying your books in-store, you will travel to the second floor of the bookstore. This is where all the textbooks are shelved for students. They are organized by subject, and each class has a specific section for textbooks for you to be able to find. Once you have found all the textbooks you need on the shelves, you will take them down to the first floor where they have cashiers waiting to check out your books. If using your bookstore bucks, you should bring your Spartan ID card, because that’s where they are stored. You will also need your Spartan ID card and possibly your debit card if you wish to rent your books. This is just so that they have a card of yours in the system that they can charge if you lose or damage the textbook. Once you are checked out, and have rented/bought your books, you are good to go.
For books that you rented, you must return them to the second floor of the bookstore at the end of the semester, after your exams. But, make sure you return them before the final date of returns, because you could be charged for that book if you don’t return it before the final return date.
This is all the information you will need to buy/rent books from the campus bookstore. Now that you have this knowledge, you are ready to get your books in order for your first semester. Next week I will be giving you all information on buying/renting books from online retailers. Make sure to come back and check it out so that you can make an informed decision between getting books from the campus bookstore and getting them from online retailers.
Until next time.
