BYU Bookstore Textbook Shelving FAQ
The Bookstore is now shelving textbooks by author
Why the change?
How was this decision made?
How will this change help the operational efficiency of the Bookstore?
What if I really don’t like this change?
What are the drawbacks?
What is the plan now?
The Bookstore is now shelving textbooks by author
Beginning Summer Term 2009, the BYU Bookstore started shelving textbooks alphabetically by author.
This FAQ is intended to answer questions on why this change was made.
Why the change?
The BYU Bookstore is owned and operated by BYU.
Its primary mandate and mission is to get course materials into the hands of students quickly and efficiently.
We are passionate about this mission because of the critical support it offers to the academic mission of the University.
Course material problems create problems for the teaching and learning environment.
We believe this shelving change will help us get the right books into the right student hands more consistently than ever.
How was this decision made?
The BYU Bookstore’s textbook managers followed business practices consistent with the mission, vision, and values of BYU while studying, making, and
implementing this change. Although the purpose of this FAQ is not to recount every detail of the study, some of the activities undertaken by Bookstore management included:
• Studying this shelving methodology as implemented at two other universities (BYU-Idaho and San Diego State) and observing those systems in action
• Conducting focus groups with BYU faculty
• Getting input from experts in the college store industry, etc.
After this year-long process, the Bookstore’s managers decided to implement the change.
This decision was then approved by the Bookstore’s university line managers.
How will this make purchasing course materials better for students?
Some of the benefits to students include:
• Increased chance of finding a book on the shelf— When shelving according to course and section number, books and packets used in
multiple courses end up in multiple locations—sometimes 4 or 5 (or more).
With shelving by author, each book is in only 1 location on the text floor.
Many students don’t realize when facing an empty shelf that the book they need could be on a different shelf or aisle. For those that are aware, it is not uncommon to give up in frustration after looking for a book in
several locations. In fact, the BYU Bookstore often fills out-of-stock special orders with books that are in stock, just in a different location than the one where the student was looking.
• Increased chance of finding the “right” book—If a student is looking for
Psychology Concepts by Abel, it will be easier to know they’ve got the right book if it is next to
Calculus by Acer than if it were next to Psychology Conceptions by Smith.
Since making the change, most students have spent less time reading shelf-tags trying to ascertain they have the correct material.
• Increased speed in finding books— Each student has a customized booklist that lists the texts for their required courses in alphabetical
order by author. Because the list is ordered in this fashion, students are likely to start with “A,” and proceed in an orderly and quick way to “Z,” picking up the course materials they need along the way.
Reading the shelf tags is also much easier simply because students are now only matching one piece of data, the author, instead of three, dept-course-sec, at each location.
This three-to-one change accounts for much of the increase in the speed in finding course materials.
There was a time this system could not have worked for us since we didn’t have customized booklists.
Now that we can provide each student with a custom booklist sorted by author, the tech barriers are gone.
• Better traffic flow/less congested aisles—Books in high volume course areas, such as Religion, will be distributed throughout the floor rather than accumulated
in one area.
• Longer access to course materials— The new alphabetical by author system eliminates the need for textbook teardown.
Teardown is the process of removing the current term’s books from the shelves and replacing them with books for the following term.
Logistically, this would happen approximately one month before the end of the current term, which meant that books from the current term were no longer available.
With course and section organization there is only one slot for a given course and section, because, for example, having two spaces for Bio 100, section 1 right next to each other with only a difference in term is highly confusing to students. With the
author system, books from different terms can easily co-exist on the shelves without causing confusion to the student concerning which book they need.
By avoiding a formal teardown, though we will still need to return un-sold texts to publishers according to their return schedules, the net result is textbooks will be available to students longer.
How will this change help the operational efficiency of the Bookstore?
Increased operational efficiency at the Bookstore directly helps the student by increasing the chance we have the right book on the shelf and indirectly
helps the student by helping the Bookstore keep costs, and therefore, prices, down.
Decreased costs are also a direct benefit to the University since all potential Bookstore profits belong to the University.
Some of these efficiencies include:
• Ease of Shelving and Re-shelving— The former shelving process required each employee to have a scanner, scan each book, and then
decide on which of the possible multiple locations to shelve it. Now they can simply look at a book by Baker, and shelve it on the “B” aisle, which is intuitive, requires no special equipment and is faster.
Faster re-shelving of returned books means books spend less time on a return cart and more time on the shelves, resulting in fewer out-of-stock special orders.
For the same reasons the new system increases re-shelving efficiency, the new system also increases efficiency with the initial shelving of books, including shelving after events such as Sell-Back. This is significant
due to the scarcity of time between the purchase of a used book from one student and the desire of another student to purchase the same title used. Sell-Back books will not need to be scanned and can go directly to the shelves.
• Faster online textbook order fulfillment—Students can order any or all of their books online at
www.byubookstore.com and Bookstore personnel will pull and hold the books for them.
Just as this system makes it easier for students to find books, it is also easier for Bookstore personnel when pulling online orders, resulting in orders being fulfilled and ready for pick-up more promptly.
• Space—The new system will require an estimated 15% less space, primarily because the same books are not in multiple locations.
This will help free up space for other services and/or products of interest to students.
What if I really don’t like this change?
We’ll find all of your books for you!
Just order online at byubookstore.com, and we’ll pull all of your books off the textbook floor, bag them, and have them ready and waiting for you at the Textbook Information Desk.
But, we hope you’ll at least give the new system a good old college try before deciding whether you like it or don’t like it.
Please feel free to send us your feedback at
textbooks@byu.edu.
What are the drawbacks?
The primary drawback of this system is for the subject-matter browser, the individual curious about what books are being used in courses from the various
areas of study taught at BYU. Since books will no longer be grouped together by subject-matter, there is not an easy method for simple in-store category textbook browsing.
Because the Bookstore’s primary mission is to get course materials to the student, it was determined that improvements to this student-focused function of obtaining course materials was more central to fulfilling our mission than keeping a category model
for the textbook floor.
How is the Bookstore addressing this drawback?
First, the information is now available on-line. Instead of browsing the books by course in the store, it is easy to do this browsing at booklist.byu.edu.
A list of books by course is also available at the Textbook Information Desk to help those interested in browsing by subject.
We have also addressed this issue with our commitment to operating a world-class, academically-oriented general book section.
This department, located on the main floor, has over 100,000 books in stock everyday and is specifically here to serve the category shopper.
There are also two additional potential drawbacks.
First, some faculty members like to come to the Bookstore and verify that the books for their courses are on the shelves.
The new system will require they visit multiple places on the floor if there is more than one book for their class.
To address any potential inconvenience for the faculty, the BYU Bookstore will conduct the verification for the faculty if they call the Textbook Office.
Second, some graduate or upper-level students may find that they need to shop more aisles under this system than they did with the old system, since
they may only have classes in one subject area. We think the new system will actually take longer for only a small group of students, and we are working on ideas to help this group.
Regardless of any potential time increases, all students will benefit from the increased likelihood that their books are on the shelves.
Also, these students, like any others, can order everything from www.byubookstore.com and we’ll have their selections bagged and ready
for pick-up at the Textbook Information Desk.
What is the plan now?
Summer Term 2009 is the time-frame for an operational check of the change.
We will be evaluating how well the change has proceeded.
How well did we do at putting the right books in the right place? Did we have enough signs and handouts? Did we have enough kiosks for printing booklists?
and so forth. Fall Semester 2009 will be our first large-scale student test.
Following the beginning-of-semester textbook rush Fall 2009, we will be conducting surveys and focus groups to assess how well the program is working.
If you would like to participate, email us at
textbooks@byu.edu.
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