Interested in reducing the financial burden on students, but not quite ready or able to adopt OER due to specific course requirements or instructional necessity? Here are some other ways you can help reduce the cost of textbooks for students!
Did you know that you can place a library-owned copy or personal copy of a textbook on reserve for your class?
For example, we are currently running a pilot program for commonly used textbooks for 100-level Math courses. The Mathematics/Statistics Dept. selected several copies of the top 5 texts. These texts are on reserve at the Circulation Desk for students to use in the library.
If you would like to order a textbook(s) to be placed on reserve, please contact your library liaison.
If you have a personal copy of a textbook you would like to place on reserve, please contact Kathy Manning, 724.738.4458
Many professors are using library e-books for their course texts or supplemental materials.
If you would to consider this, please contact your faculty liaison librarian to select an appropriate title and number of simultaneous users. (we purchase single use licenses unless we know the book is being used in a course).
Students can access e-books for free through the library catalog using their SRU login information.
One of the simplest ways you can reduce the cost of textbooks for students is by ensuring your texts are chosen for the next semester as soon as you can. This enables the bookstore to better plan for the acquisition of more used or affordable copies of the text for students.
Also: the Higher Education Opportunity Act includes a provision asking colleges to provide a list of assigned textbooks for each course during registration.