Library Support for Affordable Textbook Options

Textbook costs have been rising faster than inflation since the 70s, and at this point, paying for textbooks is a barrier to higher education for many students. Many simply choose to do without their textbook, with predictable results. The library has been requesting data from the Bookstore so we can purchase what textbooks are available for perpetual online access. We also can help with changing from a textbook that is not available to the library to one that is; adopting free online Open Textbooks; or creating online packets of selected readings drawn from librarian collections. Changing textbooks is a lot of work and requires planning, so the library is happy to work with developers or academic coordinators in advance as well as during course revision.