Amanda Jackson (freshman-journalism) always wondered what was under the strip of electrical tape on the cover of her used textbook.

Last week, Jackson pulled back the tape on her English 15 book, Writing Arguments, and found out. Underneath the electrical tape of her book, and several other students' books in her class, were the phrases "Free Copy" and "Not For Resale."

"If this book is supposed to be free then why did we have to pay for it?" Jackson asked. "Will we be able to sell the book back with tape all over it and when it says not for resale?"

About 10 students in Jackson's English 15 section bought their used books at Student Book Store, 330 E. College Ave. They got them about two weeks into the semester, and each book had electrical tape bordering the cover of the book.

Norm Brown, manager of Student Book Store, explained that these books were the publisher's copies, sent to instructors for review. Brown said the books are commonly sold back to the publishers or to wholesalers and often will make their way into the bookstores.

"They are sample books. The instructors got them for free, but we had to pay?" Rhiannon Gunderman(sophomore-education) asked.

The instructors are able to do what they want with the free sample texts, and sometimes they will sell them back and give the money to different foundations, Brown said. He also said some instructors send the books back to the publishers first.

The electrical tape on the books will not decrease the sell-back value of the books and the "Not For Resale" label will not have an effect on the value either, Brown said.

Student Book Store will buy back almost any book -- even those that are damaged -- which they try to repair, Brown said.

Penn State Bookstore will also buy the sample books back, so long as they are not the instructor's copies with the answers and notations, assistant textbook manager Nancy Poorbaugh said.

"At one time, (the bookstore) would not take them because they were given free to the instructors," Poorbaugh said.

But now, because the publishers of books such as Writing Arguments send so many samples to Penn State, the bookstores will buy them.

The managers said shortages of books, like the one that caused Jackson and her classmates to get their books two weeks late, may mean that bookstores scramble to get whatever copies they can, even if they are the sample books.

"I am extremely happy," Gunderman said, after she found out that her sample book would be returnable. "I am on a budget, like any other college student. When I find out that a book is not returnable I will just borrow it."