Following the actions of some online retailers, the Coop is also attempting to lower the prices of textbooks by allowing students to rent the books for the semester.

“For the students, they have the opportunity to save a little more than 50% over the cost of a new textbook,” said Allan Powell, the manager of the Harvard Square Coop.

Powell has also noticed that some professors are requiring fewer textbooks for their courses or are not insisting on the newest edition of the textbook.

Assistant Professor Mariano Siskind takes a different approach to cutting book costs. For his class, Latin American Studies 70: “Modernity, Culture, and Politics in Latin America,” he uses no textbooks and a single coursepack.

Keeping in mind the financial constraints of students, he said he tries take advantage of Harvard’s other resources , as well as the website, to complement the coursepack.

“I wasa student in this country as a foreigner with little means,” Siskind said.

“So I take into consideration the cost of coursepacks.”

—Hana N. Rouse contributed to the reporting of this story.

—Staff writer Monika L. S. Robbins can be reached at mrobbins@college.harvard.edu