Universities must provide students with the ISBN of textbooks by July 2010 in compliance with a provision in the Higher Education Act of 2008.

The House bill requires all institutions receiving federal financial assistance to provide the ISBN and retail price with the course list.

ISBNs are unique 10 or 13-digit numbers which identify a particular title and edition of a book. They can usually be found underneath the book’s barcode.

The bill, passed in August 2008 under former President George W. Bush, allows students to figure textbook costs before registering for courses.

“We see this as a very positive thing for students,” Rodney Parks, an associate in the Registrar’s Office, said in a phone interview Monday. “We realize that books cost students a lot of money.”

“Book Now” on OASIS provides students with the cost of their books after they register, Parks said. When students view their class schedule online, a “Bookstore” link automatically takes them to the University Bookstore’s Web site to see the price, author, title and edition of the textbooks required for their registered courses.

“This new legislation needs more of a mechanism for students to explore this information without registering,” Parks said.

The ISBN textbook provision will make it easier to search for used textbooks online.

“It’s great for students, although it will mean increased competition for the bookstore,” James Dwyer, University Bookstore manager, said in a phone interview Monday. “The spirit of the act is to empower students and to equip them with the information they need to make educated decisions on their book selections.”

The University is in a contract relationship with the Bookstore. Since the legislation calls for institutions to meet the textbook provision, the Bookstore Web site is not required to provide the ISBN – though it will submit the textbook information to a Web site run by the University, Dwyer said.

But students can already view the ISBN for textbooks at the Bookstore Web site, said Paul Ruddle, UGAKey.com developer.

First, right click on the photograph of the textbook. Then, select properties. The number proceeding the Gif or Jpeg is the ISBN.

The Florida State University bookstore’s Web site – which is run by Follett, the same company as the University’s bookstore – already provides the ISBNs of all of its books.

“It would be nice if they made it available now like other universities across the nation have started to do,” Ruddle said. “I would like to know why they haven’t already started. This will help students and their wallet during these difficult budgetary times.”

“Book Look” will replace the two-year-old “Book Now” process, Parks said.

The Registrar’s Office, University Bookstore and computer support services on campus will soon come together and discuss plans to meet the provision and submit a programming request for Book Look.

“Because we already have that [Book Now] process in place, the new software uses the same platform and a lot of the same technology, so we hope it’s not going to be extensive programming or changes to launch this new element for students,” Parks said.

Ideally, the software will be launched by March 2010, when students can register for summer and fall courses, he said. But that does not mean professors will have submitted their book requests by then.

Dwyer estimated about 30 percent of professors meet the bookstore’s deadline for submitting their book requests.

“Our hope is this will be a tool for us to get faculty to communicate to us earlier so we will have more time to source more used books and buy back more books from students,” he said.