Chegg.com, one of many companies specializing in textbook rentals that has popped up in recent years, seeks to drive down prices for students, but in its quest to extend its reach to Georgetown, the company faces stiff competition from larger book companies.

According to Dan Rosensweig, the CEO of Chegg.com, the company buys textbooks from both students and booksellers and then rents them to students, who place orders on the Web site. When finished with the books, students ship them back to Chegg at no cost, and are prepped to rent books for the next semester.

When questioned about quality control, Rosensweig said the color of packaging ensures the books are intact. “The orange box means that it was processed by our warehouse, where it has been fully checked by our employees,” he said.

Barnes and Noble and Follett Higher Education Group, the two largest college bookstore owners in America, have also been working on book rental systems. Both companies implemented pilot programs in fall 2009 and have decided to fully employ the rental program in participating bookstores in fall 2010.

The Georgetown University Bookstore, operated by Follet, was not one of the chosen pilot bookstores. However, it does appear on the list of stores that will participate in the rental program this fall. Bookstore employee Armani Foster, confirmed Georgetown will be running the program.

Very few details have been confirmed with the various publishers participating in the program, according to Foster, such as which textbooks will be rented, and how much will be charged for each rented book. Foster added that there would be more information at the end of the year book buyback. The bookstore’s participation in the program is not officially advertised at the bookstore or on its Web site.

Some of the other large booksellers have been slower to respond to the new trend of rental programs. Amazon.com announced Dec. 3 that it would create a textbook buyback program. Other major Web sites, such as half.com, a division of the auction site ebay.com, also have textbook buyback programs.

“The two together have under 1,600 bookstores,” he said of Barnes and Noble and Follett. “There are over 8,000 universities in the United States, and people from their universities are already using Chegg.com.”

Rosensweig was concerned about the high prices of books at universities.

“At many universities, books can [make up] 25 percent of the tuition,” he said.

Rosensweig also said that Chegg.com could help lower the price of books by providing competition to college bookstores.

Georgetown students expressed enthusiasm at the prospect of renting textbooks because of the lower cost and added convenience.

“I would definitely use a college textbook rental service if it was made more widely known,” Chloe Chen (SFS ’13) said. “I would choose that over buying my books, because I have a stack in my room, and I have no idea what I’m going to do with them.”