譯/王麗娟 As school started at Stony Brook University this month, two freshmen, Juan Adames and John Taveras, set out to buy textbooks.
They had not heard yet that the bookstore was a books store no more.
This summer, Stony Brook, part of the State University of New York, announced a partnership with the online retailer Amazon, now the university's official book retailer. Students can purchase texts through a Stony Brook-specific Amazon page and have them delivered to campus.
本月石溪大學開學時，兩名大一新生，胡安．阿達梅斯和約翰．塔維拉斯出門購買教科書。
他們尚未聽說，書局已經不再是擺圖書的商店。
今年夏天，紐約州立大學之一的石溪大學，宣布與網路零售商亞馬遜合作，現在亞馬遜是石溪大學的官方圖書零售商。學生可從亞馬遜的石溪專用網頁購買教科書並要求送到校園。
In the campus store where the textbooks used to be, there are now adult coloring books, racks of university-branded polos and windbreakers and three narrow bookshelves displaying assorted novels. The rest of the store is a vibrant collage of spirit wear and school supplies: backpacks and baseball caps; pompom hats and striped scarves; notebooks and correction fluid. There will soon be a Starbucks.
"I was a bit thrown off by the appearance," Adames said.
校園商店曾是教科書所在的地方，現在只有成人著色書，數個架子的大學品牌polo衫和風衣及展示各類小說的3個窄書架。店內其他部分是運動服和學校用品組成的一幅活力四射的拼貼：背包、棒球帽；小毛球帽和條紋圍巾；筆記本和修正液。不久，會有一家星巴克。
阿達梅斯：「我有點被它的擺設搞糊塗了。」
It is a conversation occurring on campuses across the country: If more and more students are buying and renting their course books online, why do they need a bookstore?
The Queens College bookstore went digital in April, forgoing brick-and-mortar altogether, Adam L. Rockman, the vice president of student affairs, said. Students order their books online, then have them shipped to personal addresses or to campus, where they are held until students pick them up.
"There are certainly some growing pains in getting used to it for many students," Rockman said. "I think the human condition is not to really love change."
下面這句話可在全美各地的校園聽到：如果從網路購買和租用課本的學生越來越多，還要書局做啥？
皇后學院書店今年四月開始數位化，完全捨棄實體店，副學生事務長裁亞當．洛克曼說。學生網購書籍後，可要求送到個人地址或校園，留在那兒等學生來領取。
洛克曼說：「當然，對許多學生而言，習慣這種方式，仍是有初期的適應問題。我想人類的狀況是，並不真的喜歡改變。」
The shift at Stony Brook is an attempt to provide more affordable options to students, according to Peter Baigent, the university's vice president for student affairs. Amazon is "more of a marketplace," where students can comparison shop, he said, as opposed to a conventional, fixed-price store. Eventually, students will be able to order texts for delivery to an Amazon area, which is still under construction, and pick them up from storage lockers.
Ripley MacDonald, director of Amazon Student Programs, said the company was also the primary course materials provider for Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
石溪分校的副學生事務長彼得．貝金特表示，該校的轉變是為了提供更負擔得起的選擇給學生。亞馬遜「更像個市場」，他說，學生可貨比三家，不同於傳統的固定價格商店。最後，學生可訂購書本，送貨到仍在建造的一個亞馬遜區，再從儲物櫃取走書籍。
亞馬遜學生計畫負責人雷里普利．麥唐納說，該公司也是印第安納州西拉法葉市的普度大學，以及阿姆赫斯特市麻州大學主要的課程材料供應商。
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