Course Reserves Collection: Course Book Collection

Library Course Books are shelved alphabetically by department, and then by call number.

There are lists by Section/Author/Title at the bottom of the box.

POLICY: THE LIBRARY DOES NOT PURCHASE REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS. Students are expected to purchase their required materials; library funds are used to supplement these materials...providing for a broader information landscape. Library materials are intended to expand the knowledge of students beyond assigned readings. The library is working with professors to develop Long-Term Alternative solutions to the current expensive commercialization of textbooks (see the column to the right). 

What is it?: The Library's Course Books Collection contains only selected books sold at the on-line Bookstore ... approximately 11% of the listed titles. These are donated copies from students. We will accept one copy of each textbook into the collection from student donations.

We do not purchase required textbooks ... unless special circumstances are discussed in advance between the instructor and the library. The collection usually does not include associated lab manuals, software packages, or CDs.

Using the collection: You are welcome to use course books in the Library, but they cannot be checked out.

You can scan materials, but please abide by the notice of federal copyright law posted by the printers and scanners. The Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S. Code) governs the making of copies and other reproductions of copyrighted material. Such copies can be made only under specific conditions. One such condition is that the photocopy or reproduction not to be "used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship or research." Use of the reproduction may make the user liable for copyright infringement. 

Selected books are kept behind the Circulation Desk (Closed Reserves) -- for security, with 3-hour personal circulation option

See the Akademos online bookstore for a listing of ALL required textbooks.  

The price of textbooks has risen more over the past few decades than almost all other items. See the article and chart Price Changes in selected U.S. Consumer goods 1997-2017. Commercial publishers have created an unreasonable and untenable scenario for students and libraries. 

The library is very interested, and active, in finding alternatives for students to this scenario. Unfortunately, throwing an inadequate amount of short-term money at part of the problem will not solve this situation...what we need is a real long-term solution.

There are hundreds of books assigned by professors that we do not have. It would cost over $40,000 per year to buy just one copy of each new title.

As many universities have proven, even if patrons or the library bought one copy of each for the library collection, there are simply too many students wanting any one book to make this a viable solution.

At best, a library copy makes it convenient for some...but not a real alternative for most.

A publisher backed plan is to utilize Inclusive Access as a way to insert required online textbook costs directly into student fees. Unfortunately, this adds guaranteed cost increases and high cost subsidies into a university-supported model. Tests have shown that for many students this is even more expensive than using the normal used textbook market. Publishers claim that the quality is higher, added value online testing is built into the tools, and teachers will not need to spend as much time on identifying quality material. It is proven that in many cases schools can gain the same advantages at far less cost to students by using Open Educational Resources. That is why we are encoraging faculty to adopt Open Educational Resources as a better long-term solution.

The Library has six touchscreen scanners and document feeders. ALL SCANS ARE FREE. You are charged only if you print your documents. The state-of-the-art high-speed BookScan stations can scan documents up to ledger size in under five seconds at 200 dpi. The Bulletscan document feeders can copy up to 40 pages in duplex mode up to legal size in either color or black and white at 300 dpi. You can save any scan to a flash drive, print it, or send it to myfiles, Google Docs, or e-mail.