Whitworth University, which has faced recent declines in its campus bookstore revenues mainly in textbook sales, has invited proposals from external business vendors as the school considers outsourcing that operation. A decision is expected by this spring, and Gonzaga University already has made such a change.

Whitworth and Gonzaga join other colleges here and in the U.S. that have switched or are considering switching to contracted vendors, often national companies, to deliver textbooks to students and to manage bookstore operations. Today, students have more options than solely buying new textbooks from the campus bookstore, including buying new and used hard-copy textbooks online, renting them, or buying digital textbooks that they download.

"The days of the college store being the only place where you can get your books for class are over," says Brian Benzel, Whitworth's vice president of finance and administration. "There is a lot of competition in this space, but there are also a lot of format differences."

As a comparison, Whitworth bookstore manager Nancy Loomis says that in the fall semester of 2006, the average amount spent per student on textbooks in the bookstore was $223.23. This fall, the average was $166.51. That decline is due partly to the bookstore seeking better-priced new and used textbooks, a cost savings that has been passed on to students, she adds.

Benzel says a university committee will review vendor proposals that also include how they would retain the bookstore's current employees. Whitworth's bookstore has six university employees, some who are part time, and six to 12 part-time student employees.

College administrators here say that while university-logo merchandise sales continue to rise, the main role of selling course materials has undergone the same turbulence as the overall book industry. In recent years, the renting of textbooks, typically from the university bookstores, also has emerged as a popular trend, they say.

This year, Gonzaga University switched from a self-managed bookstore to having it operated under contract by Follett Higher Education Group, which now manages college bookstores at more than 900 campuses. It's part of River Grove, Ill.-based Follett Corp., a provider of traditional and digital textbooks as well as other educational products to universities, school districts, and libraries.

Eastern Washington University's bookstore on its Cheney campus is operated directly by the school, says Dave Meany, an EWU spokesman. He says he isn't aware of any plans to change that structure. A Spokane branch of the EWU bookstore that had been located on the Riverpoint Campus east of downtown closed in October, to consolidate and manage resources more efficiently, Meany says. The Cheney-based bookstore, with 10 full-time university employees and about 15 part-time student employees, operates in 16,000 square feet of floor space inside the Pence Union Building.

Since 2003, Washington State University's bookstore enterprise, commonly called The Bookie, has operated under a management contract with Barnes & Noble Inc., says Darin Watkins, a WSU spokesman. He says this means that Barnes & Noble handles the day-to-day management and provides increased buying power in the textbook market.

An independent nonprofit, The Students Book Corp., retains oversight of the WSU bookstore, Watkins says, with a board made up of five WSU students, two faculty members, and two administrators that weighs strategic, fiscal, and long-term planning. The nonprofit's goal is to return profits to students in the form of discounts and to devote to student body programs.

"A company like Barnes & Noble has better access to vendors and leveraged buying power, and maybe a better touch on emerging technologies," Watkins says. "It's worked for us. We've seen better profits and reduced costs."

He says The Bookie offers a 10 percent discount to students, faculty, and staff.

He adds, "When there are profits over and above 10 percent, those profits are given to the student body for programs, typically about $85,000 a year, and those monies stay on campus."

In addition to bookstores at branch WSU campuses, The Bookie's main retail outlet is a 50,000-square-foot retail space on the Pullman campus that employs 140 people. A smaller satellite store operates on Stadium Way near campus. In Spokane, The Bookie has three employees and occupies a 4,000-square-foot space at 410 E. Spokane Falls Boulevard, on the Riverpoint Campus.

Meanwhile, Gonzaga has its main 4,000-square-foot bookstore currently in the student center called the COG, and a small retail space at the northeast corner of Boone Avenue and Ruby Street. However, both bookstores are scheduled to move into a 15,200-square-foot space within a $14 million mixed-use building now being erected on the east side of campus. The overall 250,000-square-foot structure, along Hamilton Street near Boone Avenue, is expected to be completed next year.

Marty Martin, Gonzaga University executive vice president, says a 10-year contract with Follett to operate Gonzaga's bookstore began this past summer. Gonzaga administrators saw the move as a better solution to managing the options that students need for course materials, Martin says.

"We saw Follett as a partner that could do an excellent job in the delivery of text material in a variety of formats," Martin says. "Textbooks are still popular, but there is also a movement now for the option to rent textbooks, and a growing interest in digital text."

He adds, "The material is starting to be delivered in a lot of different ways. That was a big driver."

Both Gonzaga and Whitworth administrators say revenues from textbook sales have dropped significantly in recent years.

"We were certainly seeing that on the textbook side," Martin says. Under the contract, he says Gonzaga receives a commission off the bookstore operation and maintains overall oversight. Martin says that eight university employees at the time of the change were offered jobs by Follett.

Overall, the Gonzaga transition has gone well, he says. "They had a great fall, and they did a lot of business on the rental text and really strong on the digital text as well."

Bob Anderson, EWU bookstore and student union building director, says textbook sales on the Cheney campus have risen the past few years, along with the bookstore's textbook rental program.

"One of our strengths is our textbook rental program, and that has been increasing tremendously the past two years," Anderson says. "I believe we started it fall of 2010 offering rented textbooks."

He says that during the school's fiscal year that ended in June, students saw a significant savings from that program. Students can mark inside and highlight the rented books, as long as they return them in usable condition when courses are completed, he adds.

From fall 2011 to June 2012, he estimates that students saved $348,900 by renting textbooks versus buying them. "The rental price is at least half off the shelf purchase price of textbooks," he says. "Let's say a textbook is $100, but they rent it for $50. That's how we compile that figure."

He adds, "Some textbooks will rent for less than half the retail price. Probably, close to 10 percent of our textbook business are rentals. Students really enjoy being able to rent textbooks. I think that will be the bridge until digital becomes more prevalent."

Benzel says Whitworth's bookstore also has added more options in recent years, including rented textbooks and additional used books to give students more options and cost savings. Textbook sales are down, though, he says.

He declined to disclose the bookstore's annual revenues. However, he says, "Sales for us, they've fluctuated over the last four or five years, but they're down a bit. We're in this band where we're up or down $200,000 overall per year."

"We want to see if there is a little better cost containment out there," Benzel adds, "We're looking to take some of the uncertainty out for us. There are fixed costs of operating, but the competitive pressure in the marketplace has really pushed the margins down."

Whitworth's bookstore occupies about 3,000 square feet of space on the first floor of the Hixson Union Building. As is the case with other campus bookstores, it sells and rents textbooks along with university clothing and gift items, classroom supplies, and other general merchandise.

A committee of bookstore staff, students, and faculty expects to present a recommendation to Whitworth President Beck Taylor by March. If a vendor contract is recommended, that shift could occur between March and June, Benzel says.

He adds that the committee will weigh whether vendors can offer more choices with better pricing as well as how they'll propose retaining the bookstore's current employees.

"Our people have done a great job at adapting to book rentals, and online books, and used books," Benzel says. "It's the macro economics."

Watkins says that even WSU isn't immune to the fluctuations in the publishing industry and in sales of textbooks, but that Barnes & Noble's previously mentioned buying power helps soften the turbulence.

"For textbooks specifically, the rising cost nationally is a concern," he says. "We think this is the best way we can help hold the line on costs for students. Publishers set the costs."

He adds, "There's a whole market for secondary purchases of textbooks, and students buying online. We're not immune to that, but there can be issues sometimes with that, when a student buys a book and doesn't realize it's an older book or not an updated version."

He adds. "We're seeing more and more a published edition but updates are done on a digital format that maybe will have multimedia or demonstrations of experts online. We still see a lot of textbooks. That's what we do. That's still a primary teaching tool."

In another university bookstore trend, Anderson says EWU's online store also has gained popularity.

"We've been selling online for quite a few years, and that's been increasing for clothing and Eastern gifts, and textbooks," he says. "More and more, customers are going online."