College and university students across the United States are concerned about the cost of textbooks. This study examines the student patterns of coping with textbook inflation and the role that course reserve collections play in ameliorating costs. In the winter of 2007, an online survey was distributed to 1,500 Oregon State University students to explore their textbook purchasing habits and use of course reserves. Students reported that textbook costs come directly from their personal funds. They see course reserves as one mechanism to help them deal with textbook costs. Libraries could focus efforts to assist students by purchasing recommended and optional textbooks.

Students at U.S. colleges and universities are concerned about the high cost of textbooks. Expansion of library course reserves has been suggested as one solution to this problem. The authors surveyed libraries at public universities to explore the status and management of physical course reserves and the role they play vis-à-vis textbookclass materials, which may take the form of books, photocopied articles, textbooks, class notes, old tests, and video or sound recordings.The authors would not have thought about investigating the status of physical course reserve services had it not been for a wakeup call we received from an article published in the campus student newspaper. The Daily Barometer (Heartman, 2005) reported on a proposal that had been presented to the faculty senate by the Associated Students of Oregon State University (ASOSU). The students were very concerned about the rising cost of textbooks and looked to the library as a source of relief. Their proposal called for two copies of every assigned textbook to be put on reserve in the library as one solution for coping with highly inflated textbook costs.According to a 2005 report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), students spend on average $900 a year on textbooks. System, 2007; NYPIRG, 2008). These recommendations do not acknowledge the costs for libraries of providing expanded reserve services in terms of budget, space, and staffing. Only the report from the Minnesota Office of Higher Education (2007) addressed these issues in any fashion by stating that "faculty can be encouraged to support library expenses for the placement of textbooks on library reserve" (p. 11). Costs are an enormous issue. A recent textbook reserve project at the University of Illinois had to be abandoned because of high costs (Laskowski, 2007).The ASOSU proposal inspired the authors to ask questions about the library's physical course reserves service (Pollitz & Christie, 2006). What were the implications in terms of budget and staffing if the OSU Libraries adopted the students' recommendation for alleviating textbook costs? Are course reserves sustainable and still relevant in today's academic climate? What does it cost to run a course reserve service? Is providing a reserve service the most effective use of these funds? Questions about our own course reserves service prompted us to wonder how other libraries were managing their services and how librarians viewed the interplay between course reserve services and the high cost of textbooks.There is little current literature on how physical course reserve services are being used. In the past 10 years, with the development and adoption of electronic reserve services (e-reserves), library literature has focused on that topic with very little attention paid to traditional paper-based reserve services. Management of Library Course Reserves 461There is also little current information on the cost of providing the physical course reserve service, including the purchase of books and other items to go on reserve and libr...

This article is aimed at the practical applications of information available on the Internet and how it creates a new role f a reference librarians as information facilitators. It focuses on the Info.umd.edu database developed by the University of Maryland and how it makes the transfer of files very easy. There are examples of how his database can be used to facilitate librarian and faculty interaction and collegiality, and how it is a resource for answers to specific questions. It contains specific examples of how the database was used in the above situations. One such example is how the author introduced the Women's Studies sections of the database to the Women's Studies faculty. They saw it as a wonderhrl resource for information as to what other faculty are doing across the country.The database has been used to enhance the image of the library on campus. Within minutes of downloading the text of the Democratic National Platform from Info, the college president's office called thanking the library for making it available to the campus. It presents the idea that the information available on the Internet is still essentially an untapped resource by many faculty and students. Librarians have the skills to become guides and mentors in the exploitation of that resource. Databases like Info.umd.edu and knowledge of them make us a valuable commodity on campus.