Flyers advertising the sale of used course books can be found all over the Columbia campus, but Tony Vassilev, CC '03, hopes soon to post "the last used book flyer": an advertisement for a website he created that allows Columbia and Barnard students to buy and sell used books online.

If the website, www.dogears.net, is successful, Vassilev anticipates that it could "save students a lot of money" and provide a simpler and easier way to conduct student-to-student used book exchanges.

He began creating the site last summer as an answer to the question of why "when I buy books, they're so expensive, but when I sell them, I get nothing back." The problem can be eliminated if students sell directly to students, Vassilev said. He added that he hoped his website will provide an alternate way for such transactions to occur.

Vassilev said he didn't know anything about computers and taught himself how to program a website "from scratch" by using Internet tutorials and asking for advice on online bulletin boards.

To use Dogears, a student must register with his Columbia e-mail address and a password of his own choosing. The website then sets up an account for the student, from which he can do three things: post a book for sale, search for a book, or manage his account. Students can search for books by subject, title, or author and view listings that contain the text's condition as well as additional comments from the seller.

The site offers visitors the option of requesting to buy books.

"If you see a book on the site and you want it, it's yours," Vassilev said, adding that unlike flyers, the website's database removes already requested books from its "for sale" list.

Once a student requests a book, Vassilev explained, the site sends the student an e-mail asking him to confirm the sale. If the seller does not confirm the sale within two days, the website sends an e-mail to the buyer explaining that the seller is not responding. The requested book will then be removed from the database until the seller puts it back on.

Until a few days ago, the CCSC also offered a website intended to help students exchange textbooks.

The CCSC site consisted of bulletin boards on which one can post messages about used books, a system that Vassilev said is a virtual version of students posting flyers all over campus. The system is not searchable, and its messages stay posted even when they are no longer accurate, he said.

But CCSC president Michael Novielli, CC '03, said that the CCSC, after consulting with Vassilev and the CCSC's webmaster, had decided to replace its textbook exchange website with Dogears. A link on the CCSC's website will lead to the newer website.

"We've received many requests for a better textbook exchange [service]. We feel that this new form will be much easier for studnts to use," Novielli said, adding that the launch of Dogears was "rather timely" given the e-mails that the CCSC had received requesting a new textbook exchange service.

Jessica Berenyi, CC '03, said she has used the CCSC website to sell her books because she finds it "ridiculous that you sell books to the bookstore for no money and buy the same books for twice what you sold them for." She has been happy with the CCSC website but said that she would be willing to try the Dogears website.

Christine Luu, CC '04, said she did not like the old CCSC website because she found it slow. She said she prefers selling books through flyers and plans to sell the books she is currently trying to sell to the bookstore if no one responds to her flyers.

Luu, however, added that she would consider using Dogears if she knew other people used it.

As for publicity, at the beginning of the semester Vassilev hoped to attract users to Dogears through advertising. Computer problems delayed the finishing of his website until now.

However, Vassilev said that beginning to advertise the website in the middle of the semester, when most students have already sold or purchased their books, is better as he "would prefer to have small usage" initially.

"I'm optimistic about it," Vassilev said, "but I have the feeling of releasing a caged animal."

Concerned that minimal usage would discourage potential early users, Vassilev purchased Literature Humanities and Contemporary Civilization books to post initially.

"I'm not selling them for profit," he said, adding that he posted these books for the same price he paid for them and had posted them "just so something was there."

In the future, Vassilev said, he doesn't want to put advertisements on Dogears. While Vassilev said he has considered making money with the website, he insisted that such profit would never involve "making money from students."

Vassilev has also considered taking the website to other college campuses or developing the site into a marketplace for students to buy and sell any items, not just textbooks. He has not discounted the idea of a publicity stunt, either, as he mentioned the possibility of "doing something crazy ... to attract attention on campus" and let students know about the website.