Students at Meridian Community College may have noticed that, since spring semester of this year, things around the MCC “Eagle’s Nest” bookstore are a bit different.

The most obvious, though perhaps not the biggest change, is that students can no longer browse through text books. Gone are the days when students waltz into the bookstore with their book list, grab the books they need, and then wait in line at the check-out counter.

Now, they wait in line twice.

To get their books, students now form a line to give their schedules to a bookstore employee, who goes behind a counter to retrieve their books. The students then take their books to the check-out line.

This new arrangement, said bookstore manager Martha Williams, is mutually beneficial. “This makes it quicker and also more accurate,” she said. In the past, there were problems with students accidentally picking up the wrong books. Having employees retrieve the books, she said, alleviates that problem. It also adds speed to the process since employees already know exactly where to find the correct books. On top of that, the new arrangement prevents theft.

Students who are used to going to the bookstore, finding out which books they need, and then seeking a bargain on them elsewhere needn’t fear the new set-up, Williams said. They can get the titles of the books they need from their “eaglenet” online account, or by calling when the bookstore is not too busy. In programs, such as nursing, where students needs to buy an especially large number of books, faculty usually provide a list.

To Williams, the store has undergone a more significant change than the “no self service” set-up. Their new system of financial aid and scholarship payment, she says, is a much bigger deal. Previously, students whose books were paid for by financial aid or scholarships had to wait to get “book cards” from MCC’s business office, which they would then take to the bookstore and use like vouchers.

Now, the bookstore cashier simply scans a student’s ID, and all their financial aid information appears on the cashier’s computer. The student simply has to present the ID and the books they want to buy, and the payment is taken care of in cyberspace.

One thing that has not changed at MCC nor at college bookstores around the world — textbooks are still expensive. The average cost of books for a full-time MCC student is $525 per semester. In-state full-time tuition is $725, only $200, or 28 percent more than the average cost of books. And though $525 is the average, for some MCC students, the cost of books could actually be more than tuition.

To make things even more expensive, publishers often release new editions of textbooks every few years, making it harder for students to save by buying used books.

Publishers also have taken, over the past decade or so, to bundling books together with things like CD’s and workbooks, making it harder for students to sell books at the end of a semester — buyers sometimes won’t accept books that originally came in shrink-wrapped bundles.

In addition, the bundling takes away the luxury of flipping through books before classes begin — books with the shrink wrap removed cannot be returned, so if you unwrap a book, but find on the first day of class that you don’t need it, you’re stuck with the book and its price tag.

So where does all that money go? According to a pamphlet made by MCC’s bookstore, it goes to “author royalties, publishing costs, marketing costs, publisher and author taxes, and bookstore expenses.” Profits made by the bookstore go to student services, facilities, and programming at MCC.

MCC’s fall 2008 semester began Friday. Books (still in their shrink wrap, of course) can be returned for a full refund during the first two weeks of class, or a half refund during the third week.