Students at Carleton University in Ottawa will have the option of renting their textbooks beginning this semester.

The school's bookstore is one of six across Canada trying out Rent-A-Text, which has been a successful program in the United States.

Students will have to sign an agreement to rent the books and on average save about half the price if they were to buy them. But they must return the books at the end of the semester.

"I have gone without a textbook or two but I think this program of renting a textbook is definitely a good thing," said Dahay Daniel, a history student who's in her fourth year.

"We know that text book pricing is very expensive to students so we are trying to do our bit to reduce that cost," said Ed Kane, assistant vice-president of University Services.

Student Noah Shwartz said he spends about $1,000 a year on school books. But he'll now be able to use the money he saves by renting books to help pay his rent.

"I mean it's always good to save money and when you're a student you don't always have unlimited resources," he said.

The manager of Haven Books, a consignment book store near Carleton that caters to students, said she's not worried about the program and her store may follow suit in the future.

"It would be kind of a difficult program to put in place, but if it's something that students really like, I would definitely look into it," said Katie Rouse.

There are 162 course books available for rent this year through Rent-A-Text. University officials said they expect the project will be a success and the selection will likely be expanded in September 2011.