BrunoBooks To Take Over Crimson Reading

CrimsonReading.org, the Web site that allows Harvard students to compare textbook prices online, will be powered this semester by BrunoBooks, a similar site started in 2007 at Brown.

Like Crimson Reading, which was founded in 2006 by then-UC members Tom D. Hadfield ’08 and Jon T. Staff V ’10, BrunoBooks uses ISBNs (International Serial Book Numbers) to compare prices from online vendors with university bookstore prices.

Under the terms of the agreement, no matter how much money Crimson Reading makes this semester, $3,000 will go to the charity that Crimson Reading has sponsored since its inception.

After operating costs, 60 percent of any additional revenue will go to BrunoBooks, according to Jesse Maddox, one of the founders of BrunoBooks.

Maddox said the new Crimson Reading site will list the Coop’s prices for new and used copies of a textbook alongside online vendors’ prices, and listed prices will now include shipping and handling.

UC members, including UC President Matthew L. Sundquist ’09, said that if the arrangement proves successful, it will insure that Crimson Reading will continue to exist as its founders leave the UC and Harvard.

“No one who was around for the start of the Crimson Reading will be here in a year or two,” said UC secretary Maia Usui ’11.

Hadfield is getting married, Staff is studying abroad, and the current UC members who were involved in the project will soon graduate.

Usui said few people on the council now could handle the time commitment and technical know-how of maintaining CrimsonReading.

Usui, who is in charge of publicity for Crimson Reading, said that going forward, the UC’s only involvement with the service will be to get the word out, especially to freshmen.

Crimson Reading will continue to use Harvard students as ISBN gatherers at the Coop, Maddox said.

In addition, BrunoBooks has outsourced some of its ISBN collecting operations to a firm in India.

Crimson Reading’s profits go to Living Compassion, a charity that has raised $9500 to date towards building a school in Zambia.

Sundquist said that the UC will not receive any of Crimson Reading’s profits beyond $200 to pay for posters and supplies.

—Staff writer Chelsea L. Shover can be reached at clshover@fas.harvard.edu.