Imagine not waiting in line all afternoon to pay for textbooks at the start of the semester. Imagine ordering your books and having them delivered to your dorm at no extra charge.
This may be too much for past student-customers of the Hammes Notre Dame Bookstore to imagine. But the bookstore's new management, Follett College Stores, says it's serious about making such convenience a reality.
The nation's largest manager of campus bookstores, Follett has designed a World Wide Web site -- http://www.ndbookstore.com/ -- where Notre Dame students can type in course numbers and other information (such as whether they prefer used books to new) and have store employees round up the order for payment and pickup the following day (a phone call or e-mail message would alert them if a title is unavailable).
Starting spring semester, it's expected that students will even be able to buy books on- line using a credit card and get the order delivered on campus for free. At the other end of the high-tech textbook pipeline, professors will be able to surf over to the virtual bookstore at any time and key in the titles of books they'll be requiring for next semester's classes.
"Notre Dame will be the ultimate on-line book site," promises Kate Hauk, Follett's director of Internet services.
Web sites for other Follett bookstores feature clothing and other merchandise available for ordering on-line, information on special events at the bookstore, links to pages that allow alumni to communicate with one another, even an on-screen, free, slot machine game offering chances to win store merchandise.