BESS Interview Questions

1. Have you ever been in a situation where you wanted to buy a used textbook? If yes: How did you do it? Please describe the steps and any difficulties you encountered.

Yes. Steps are to first check the bookstore and see if there is one available, if it’s cheaper, and if it’s in great condition.  If it isn’t in the bookstore, and I really needed a used version (hypothetical), I’d first try emailing SIMS mailing list, then check around by word of mouth.  I haven’t actually needed to do this.

One advantage of the bookstore is you know you’ve got the book in hand—no waiting for a mail shipment, no waiting for a response to email.  Time constraint is important.  Wouldn’t get used books via mail if I couldn’t be sure I’d get the book on time.

2.  Have you ever been in a situation where you wanted to sell a used textbook? (but not to the bookstore). If yes: Describe process and difficulties.

If no: Imagine you are moving to Tanzania and you can’t take all your books, but you know that some SIMS students might take them off your hands.  How would you go about finding a student to purchase your books?

Yes.  Have sold books back to the bookstore before.  If I wanted to sell it without going through bookstore, I’d get the word out verbally first, then via email if word-of-mouth didn’t work.

“We’re used to inconvenience and high prices” when it comes to book buying. 

Process of buying books takes many steps:

• Going to store to find out what’s there
• Looking in store to find out required texts, if professor listed them with store
• Searching for required books in store
• Buying them only if convenient, after waiting in line

Selling would be equally inconvenient if you had to go to bookstore to see which classes were using your book, so you knew whom to solicit.

3.  What would it take to make you use a book exchange system such as BESS?  (Explain BESS.)  What features would be useful to you?  (Speed?  Convenience?  Savings?)

I only would want SIMS students to be involved in BESS…not whole campus.  Wouldn’t want to sell or buy from people outside circle.  Condition of book is very important, and I’d need to know condition before committing to buying.  Very important that listings are updated so that time is not wasted contacting sellers who have already sold the book.  It would be fast and nice to be able to search for books via ISBN.  Sellers shouldn’t have to look through lists to find out what class their book will be used in; system should automatically assign book to the proper class.  Books on related topics or that aren’t being used in a class should be put in a general section where people can browse.  When you enter a book you want to sell, the system should tell you if the book is outdated (new version), if it can’t be sold, etc. so you don’t waste your time.

4.  Would the level of openness of the system affect your use (i.e. SIMS-only access versus other students, log-in versus open browsing)?

People in SIMS classes would be okay, or maybe (better) anyone with a SIMS computer account.  You could do this by having the site link off of an internal SIMS site.  It is not okay to release my contact information to random surfers or people who don’t need to know it.  The most important things in the system would be to save money and not to have to invest much time to do it.