This is the dilemma faced by many students in all majors on this campus. It's a bad system for the students - why has it lasted this long? Fortunately, this semester will be different, and the Electronic Textbook Exchange is here to facilitate the change.
The Electronic Textbook Exchange is a forum for the reselling of textbooks. Say you have a book to sell. You can access our easy-to-use Web interface, type in your network alias, and the Exchange will automatically bring up your personal information from the ph database. After that, you can submit as many books as you want; the Exchange will insert them into its internal database. Then, when a person looking for this book comes by, he need only search through the database (based on the class for which the book is required) and find how to contact you. Finding and selling books becomes simple and with Netscape-enhanced security, it becomes secure too. The CGI scripts driving the Exchange were written entirely in C, and a relational database with complete C API was developed from the ground up. This database is so flexible that it could be used in a variety of "exchanges." Already, plans have been made for an Apartment Sublet Exchange and possibly a CD Exchange.
The database is also almost completely self-administering: routine database compactions and software-configurable expiration dates on entries are already written.
If you're interested in helping with the Exchange, or if you have any questions about it, please mail sigmicro@uiuc.edu.