Thursday, July 26, 2012

Buying Your Books, Part 4: Checking Out

It's the big day. "My Payment Plan" is available, and books can now be picked up via Financial Aid for the fall semester. In other words, the store is gonna be packed (thankfully, I'm off today! Yay for blogging!).

If you've read the first three parts in the "Buying Your Books" series, chances are you have just about all the info you need to know to purchase your books successfully. But there's one final step. Let's delve into the checkout process. Some parts that are commonly misinterpreted by students have been outlined in bold for clarity. The bookstore appreciates your making note of these so the checkout process can be as easy and painless as possible for everyone. =)

First and foremost, let us clarify that our in-stock textbooks are available for purchase year-round. However, financial aid is only available during a certain window, so if you're looking to pay with grants or loans, you can only do so during that window. Payments are processed via a service known as My Payment Plan (formerly known as e-Cashier), or "MyPay" for short. With it, you can charge your textbooks to your MyPay account, and the money will be deferred until a later date. Here's the rundown:

When you take your books up to the register for checkout, we'll first ask to see your SmartCard. This is solely so that we can identify you as an OTC student. It has nothing to do with charging your books. If you do not have a SmartCard, you must register for one before you may complete your purchase. If you have lost or forgotten your SmartCard, you will be granted one grace transaction and one only. We will look up your information, which will include the amount of financial aid you have available, when applicable (if you have intention of using financial aid and and your account shows no money in it, you will have to check with the Cashiers Office to see what the situation is, as we have no control over that). After that, it's your basic retail checkout, really. If you're using financial aid, we'll charge your account. If you're using cash, we'll give you back your change. If you're using debit, we'll swipe your card and have you sign the receipt. And if you're using a check, we'll need to see a state-issued photo ID, as well as write down your license number, phone number, and date of birth. Standard stuff.

And, that's it! Not too bad, huh? Now you have all that you need to start the semester. Hopefully this 4-part series has been beneficial in getting a look at how to purchase textbooks at the OTC Bookstore. Don't be afraid, now! Come and down and buy your books today! And as always, if you have any questions, please feel free to talk to any bookstore employee, or leave a blog comment. We'll see to it that you're taken care of.

The bookstore is certainly a hive of activity right now, but that's not the only place we bookstore employees are hard at work. We're currently buzzing about the campus, getting our textbook reservation program ready. And trust me, it's one doozy of a ride. But that's another story...

Monday, July 23, 2012

A Busy, Bustling Bookstore as Buyback Begins

The summer season is wrapping up, and you know what that means: things are about to get crazy busy at the OTC Bookstore!

 First of all, wholesale book buyback begins tomorrow! Don't miss out on your chance to get the most money for your used textbooks at these convenient locations on these convenient dates:


Springfield Campus - OTC Bookstore
Monday, July 23 - Thursday, July 26 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Friday, July 27 8:00 am - 4:30 pm

Richwood Valley Campus - Atrium
Thursday, July 26                              10:00 am - 4:00pm   

Lebanon Center - Room 240, St. Louis Building
Wednesday, July 25                            10:00 am - 4:00pm    

Waynesville Center - Room 110

Tuesday, July 24                                10:00 am - 4:00pm  

Branson Center - Atrium
Monday, July 23                                 10:00 am - 4:00pm  

And don't forget, MyPay (Financial aid) is scheduled to become available this Wednesday, July 25th, so get ready to be a-chargin' those textbooks for fall! Brush up on our 3 "Buying Your Books" articles, and we'll be ready with the final part before the big day.

Friday, July 6, 2012

Buying Your Books, Part 3: Shelf Tags

Making your merry little way through our aisles wouldn’t do you much good without shelf tags to tell you what classes the books are for.
As mentioned in our last post, the books are arranged in a certain order, as can be seen by reading the shelf tags. Let’s take a look at one from the CIS section.

First of all, you’ll want to make sure that the shelf tag correlates to the correct semester by checking the upper-right corner of the tag. If you’re, say, looking for books for the fall semester and we still have summer semester shelf tags up, then be wary; as has been mentioned, books change from semester to semester, and you want to make sure you don’t get a summer book that will be obsolete in the fall. Look behind the summer shelf tag to see if a tag for the fall book is in place, and whether or not that book is there on the shelf.

Below the semester information, we have some fairly self-explanatory info: the course code the book is assigned to, the name of the class, textbook author, ISBN number, the book title [the (P) stands for “Paperback”], and the prices for new and used copies. Note that some books we sell we are unable to get used, so a used price may not always be available.
Next, we have the section list. To insure as many students as possible are able to take the classes they need, OTC divides the classes into sections (consult your class schedule to determine what section you’re in). Most sections use the same material, but some vary, such as the online and seated sections of Spanish 101. Going back to the CIS-100 shelf tag, you see seven different section numbers that are using that textbook. Sections 101-103 are held at the main campus, section 301 at Lebanon, 401-402 in Branson, and 501 in Waynesville. Online sections would contain a “W” before the number (i.e. W01), hybrid instruction classes are indicated by an “H”, and “A/B” indicates an 8 week block class.

Also take note of the “*R/C/O/S” located beside the section number column. “R” means the book is required for the course. “C” means you have a choice of several materials for that course (consult your booklist to determine what you have to choose from). “O” means the material is optional for the section (it’s often good to consult your instructor to find whether or not the material would prove useful in their section), and “S” means suggested. Of course, the instructor for that particular section is also listed.
There. Now you should have all the info you need to make your course material selections accurately. All you need to do now is to check out. That will be discussed in the final article of this series.