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What is Swatbooks?

Swatbooks is a website where you can compare Swarthmore College textbook prices from several bookstores. A Swarthmore student started it in 2002 and, despite having graduated, still maintains it.

What if I find a problem?

Please email us at swatbooks@schak.com. We can't test this site on all the browsers we'd like to, so there are certainly some bugs we've missed.

What if my course or book isn't on this site?

If it's listed on the official Swarthmore College Bookstore site, then we need to fix something; please email us. If it's not, then take the problem up with the Bookstore staff.

What is the difference between slow and fast searching?

Prices on marketplace sites like Half.com fluctuate too much to keep a reliable database on our server. So, to list certain prices, a program on our server has to look up those prices, which takes some time. Fast searching displays only those prices which we can store in our database, so it takes much less time.

Which semester's books do you list?

Currently, Spring 2004's.

Why don't you have nifty feature X?

Because this is a low-maintenance site that we want to keep simple.

Will you sell spammers my email address?

If enough people give me their email addresses, of course!

Where should I buy my books?

It's up to you. Bear in mind that online bookstores frequently (though not always for expensive orders) charge for shipping, and the the College Bookstore is notorious for advertising used prices when only new items are in stock. Be sure to investigate return policies, too.

What is an ISBN?

An International Standard Book Number. Every edition of every book has a unique one. We use them in searching to ensure that we list the edition your professor requested from the Bookstore. It can pay to check out old, paperback, or international editions.

I still use Netscape 4 or IE 4 or Mosaic or.... This site looks ugly. Waaah.

Oh please. I grew sick of writing pages for those browsers when they went obsolete half a decade ago. Download a modern browser, such as Opera for Windows or Linux or Internet Explorer for the Macintosh. Other up-to-date browsers also work.

Swatbooks is in no way affiliated with Swarthmore College, the Swarthmore College Bookstore, or Swotbooks.com.
Email: swatbooks@schak.com.