As for the subject at hand, I haven't been in college for almost 20 years. Back when I did attent the University of WI, we didn't have to purchase books. The school bookstore was seperated into two areas. Purchasable items and then class texts. The textbooks needed for classes were basically "checked out" similar to a library and at the end of the semester you just turned them back in. This is the way that ALL schools should do it.
Of course, we had the option of purchasing brand new textbooks if we wanted, which some people did do, but most simply used the checkout system