Many of the universities do not have an exclusive website or some kind of platform for selling and purchasing used books for example, in SFU, it is difficult for students to keep track of the books that are available for sale. The posts of books are inconspicuous in the Facebook pages with other social comments. Also, students first need to ask the seller about the availability of the books. There is no provision for a student to keep track of all the books he/she has posted for selling and no one is managing these pages. Locating a certain book requires scrolling through books that are not related to student interest.
BookHub provides university students with an exclusive platform for trading used books. Students will have a proper platform where they can keep track of all the books they have posted. Students will have seperate page for the order history and the visibility of their posted books. Studnets will also have an option to put the book in the Wishist. They will be notified when the book in the wishlist become available. BookHub would reduce the time to find books by the exclusive services for old books. Students will be able to search the books based on the name or ISBN of the book.
BookHub is a web application portal which is restricted for serving the purpose of university students. Only students who have a student account with verified universities are eligible to create an account with BookHub. Based on the initial response to the web application and student demands, BookHub can be expanded to include university book stores information. BookHub is not for non-student accesses because non-student customers could pollute the academic student portal and there will be no one to manage those. BookHub is limited only to academic books. There is a consideration to provide remote access to verified old bookseller so that the sellers can post course books that are needed for several students.
BookHub is designed to serve the needs of the students. The sign up is for unverified users to verify user's account. Once verified each user is able to manage his/her profile through the sign in. BookHub has a search column used by users to search for the required books. The user is able to search a book by specifying various details such as the name of the book, ISBN of the book. Students can also add some additional details for the book like pictures, the condition of the book etc. as it will help the buyer to get more details. In case a book is not available for sale on BookHub, the student can add the book in the Wish List. If the book becomes available in future, all the students who have added that particular book in their Wish List will be notified with an email. There is a consideration to allow remote access to verified old booksellers (only for course books). The sellers can post books on the portal which serve the requirements of the students.