A fresh web alternative to campus bookstores has been implemented for students to buy and sell textbooks. The service is completely cost-free to students and is run from a website (www.ualrsource.org). Ualrsource.org is the brainchild of a company called iProv, owned by senior computer science major RJ Martino, 2003 studio art graduate Roxane Martino, and senior systems engineering major Matt Willis. IProv, along with marketing representative Samuel Carrasquillo, released ualrsource.org April 29.

Students complete a secure registration with the site, and the site hosts contact information for the students. Students can then self-price and post books to sell; they can also see what books are available and contact the other students to purchase the books. The advantage to using ualrsource.org over the traditional campus bookstores is that there is no marketing cost.

“You save a lot more when you purchase books and get a lot more when you sell them,” RJ Martino said. “It eliminates the middle man; it eliminates the market [bookstores] put on it.”

These costs are eliminated because currently iProv is paying for the site out of pocket. RJ Martino explained that the site plans to host advertising but is waiting for the number of “hits” (times people access the site) to rise. Advertisers consider the popularity of the site before buying advertising space. RJ Martino said he expects that ualrsource.org will break even sooner rather than later, so that they can potentially expand the site beyond UALR.

“We would like to branch out, but we have to cover costs,” he said. “We’re right on the edge.”

Junior psychology major Mysia Cole said she thinks the site will be beneficial to students once its popularity increases.

“I don’t think too many students know about it. I think [eventually] it will be a better place than the campus bookstore to buy and sell books,” Cole said.

In addition to the book service, the site offers a forum for students to post reviews about professors.

“Students can get information on the teachers they are about to have,” RJ Martino said. “[They] can make decisions based on the reviews.”

The teacher reviews are beneficial for not only students, but instructors as well.

“The teachers can also access the reviews to see how they measure up to other teachers in students’ eyes,” Roxane Martino said.

The site also hosts features such as poll questions, articles of interest, and Party Events, a calendar for on and off-campus events. The executives of clubs, Greek organizations, etc., can post their events on the calendar, and it will be viewable by all who access the site.

IProv itself was established in 2001. The company originated with a business plan competition for a class in information science. RJ and Roxane Martino and Willis submitted a plan for a graphic design company and made it through the first round of competition. Though they did not proceed to the second round of competition, RJ Martino worked for an ad agency that was willing to provide office space for the three to begin the company.

He said the idea for ualrsource.org came about approximately a year later, when during his freshman year, he was trying to sell a book back to the campus bookstore. The bookstore had already bought back its quota for that book, and as a result, RJ Martino was offered a very small percentage of what he had originally paid for the book. Feeling that this was probably a common occurrence, he began to develop the idea that became ualrsource.org.

“I think a lot of people have thought it before, but no one’s implemented it,” he said.

RJ Martino said he and his colleagues are always receptive of student input to better the site.

“A project like this is never really done,” RJ Martino said. “We’re open to suggestions. If we can better the site in any way, then we will.”

R.J. Martinao and Roxanne Martino work on their Web site www.ualrsource.org, a site developed for students to buy and sell books Photo thanks to:Holly Ballard