Undergraduate Council executives met last night to decide the fate of UC Books, a council-sponsored website designed three years ago to search the Internet for the cheapest prices on student textbooks.

Although the council executives said they would like to overhaul the floundering student service next fall, they reached no final conclusion on the best course to take.

According to former council president Paul A. Gusmorino ’02, who invented the program, UC Books experienced a brief surge of popularity when it was first introduced in February 2000.

But in the past few semesters, the website’s popularity has waned, as has the number of Harvard classes whose books are listed on the site.

While the website still lists textbook prices for most Core courses, it offers few reading lists for departmental courses.

In UC Books’ Afro-American studies section, for example, only one course links to a reading list—where a message reads that no textbooks are needed for the course. No reading lists are available for any course in the biological sciences department.

Though he says he does not have any exact figures, Gusmorino says UC Books has seen an especially dramatic decline in popularity this semester.

“I suspect right now that fewer students are using it this semester than last spring,” Gusmorino says.

According to council members, UC Books never reached the level of importance they had hoped because students failed to take sufficient responsibility for the project. They also say they blame a declining consumer interest in online book sales for UC Books’ woes.

And though some council executives say they will revamp the service and better council technology in general, others say UC Books may already have seen its last semester online.

Pick Up the Slack

Although Gusmorino runs UC Books with the help of five other council members, the program’s success depends primarily on the willingness of all council members to contribute book lists to the site.

All council members are asked to collect international standard book numbers (ISBN) for course reading lists. These codes allow UC Books to search the Web for cheap textbook prices.

But council members say certain representative were unreliable and collected few ISBNs this semester.

“Only about several people besides myself actually took up the call to look for reading,” says council member Oluseyi A. Fayanju ’05.