Affordable education with a little help from the library

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe the design, creation and outcome of a pilot project to provide additional course reserve materials to students. The goals of the project include off-setting the rising costs of higher education and providing equitable access to materials. Design/methodology/approach This case study describes the process of library staff co-creating a workflow to efficiently identify, order and process print and electronic books for 100 and 200 level courses at a small, private university. The project was influenced by an exploration of library services in the context of library ethics. The authors evaluate the impact of the project and determine continued need after a two-year pilot. Findings This paper demonstrates the usefulness of the course reserves service in providing accessible and cost-effective resources. Increased usage of course reserve materials by students, along with a reduction in money spent over time by the library to support the service, has resulted in a program that is deemed viable to continue and potentially expand. Social implications This paper seeks to address the added challenges often placed on low-income college students in accessing, paying for and using assigned course materials. Libraries can use course reserves to enhance student success by providing them with an alternate to purchasing course materials. Originality/value The project addresses constraints of cost, staff time and cross-departmental workflows in managing a course reserves program at a small university and provides a template for other libraries to use.

Shifting Priorities: A Look at a Course Adopted Text (CATs) e-Book Program and How Its Success Realigned One Library’s e-Book Collection Priorities

“…Wallace and Filion (2018) at the University of Arizona also rely on bookstore collaboration to make their CATs program run and provide great details on four years of the library supplying e-books for CATs. More recently, Sotak, Scott, and Griffin (2020) describe a bookstore partnership at the University of Portland that uses bookstore data received two-months prior to the start of the semester to identify CATs the library has access to or could purchase.…”

Board 96: Exploring the Impact of Textbook Costs on Undergraduate Engineering Majors

“…While there is some debate in the literature whether course reserves at the library may have the unintended consequence of facilitating unaffordability by allowing the costs of textbooks to grow unchecked [9] or if they make materials access more equitable [10], it is clear from these results that students would be open to accessing more copies through the library. The engineering school averages 41 total seats per course in the undergraduate engineering courses and there are rarely multiple sections of a class.…”