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You Can’t Do That!: �Library-Initiated Textbooks on Reserve Programs

John Burke

Miami University Middletown

Krista McDonald

Miami University Hamilton

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What’s the problem with textbooks?

  • Too expensive
    • Students spend $940 annually on textbooks and supplies (Pekow)
    • Average cost of the original groups of textbooks we purchased:
      • $103 at Hamilton
      • $85 at Middletown
  • Late arrival of financial aid keeps students from purchasing books in time
  • Students wonder if textbooks will be used enough in class to justify purchase

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Why are textbooks not added to library collections?

  • Will be hoarded by a small set of students
  • Prone to damage/marking up
  • Editions change too often to stay current
  • Expensive investment in “peripheral” items
  • Should be the responsibility of students
  • Competition with campus bookstores

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Textbooks on reserve

  • What if the library bought some textbooks and kept them on reserve?
  • Learned that Ohio State University had started a program
  • Already help students request earlier editions of texts from other OhioLINK libraries
  • Asked: “Isn’t it part of the library’s mission to make materials for learning as widely available as possible?”

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The basics of the program

  • Select a set of courses to buy textbooks for
  • Invest a small amount of library funds
  • Encourage donations of current texts
  • Provide reasonable and broad access to the texts
  • Keep track of statistics to see if investment is paying off in usage

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Who could participate in the planning process?

  • Campus bookstore
  • Department of Learning Assistance
  • Student Services Department
  • Academic Advising and Retention
  • Financial Aid Department
  • Faculty
  • Student Government Association

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How courses were selected

  • Nature of the course (Miami Plan course or other introductory level course)
  • Significant projected student enrollment
  • Use of a single textbook for all or most sections offered for the course
  • Nature of the texts (only required texts will be purchased; no study guides, workbooks, lab manuals, or other related materials included)
  • Publication of a new edition of the text is not imminent

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Where does the money come from?

  • Combination of:
    • Donations from campus bookstore
    • Library funds
    • Student government funds
    • Donations of textbooks by academic departments or individual faculty members and students
  • Total costs (to date):
    • Middletown: $3,600
    • Hamilton: $1,400

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Processing and display

  • Textbooks each check out for 2 hours (also overnight at Middletown)
  • One copy of each text is available
  • Intermingled with regular reserve items on reserve shelves, but labeled to show their “Textbooks on Reserve” status
  • Middletown: on-the-fly records
  • Hamilton: formal cataloging
  • Donated items are bookplated if donor desires it

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Marketing techniques

  • Web page for the program
  • Posters across campus
  • Banners at the library entrance
  • Bookmarks distributed at each checkout and to all attendees at library instruction sessions
  • Announcement on the library’s blog
  • Email to various campus-wide listservs
  • Attended various campus committee meetings to promote the program
  • Student and faculty word of mouth

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How should usage be tracked?

  • Grouped as a single reserve course

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  • Gather stats weekly

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  • Items that leave TOR

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  • Items that stay in TOR

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  • Keeping semester counts

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Are there copyright issues to be considered?

  • Not perfectly clear cut, but . . .

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  • No: we lend what we own

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  • First sale doctrine (Section 109): the opinion of Kenneth Crews

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  • May not apply to donated desk copies

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Results so far

  • Positive PR; broad support from faculty
  • Traditional reserve service use has increased
  • Generated discussion among other Ohio regional and two-year campuses
  • Inspired our main campus
  • Targeted courses serving a total of 3800 students on the two campuses each semester
  • Usage statistics:

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    • Hamilton
      • 37 courses – 305 circulations since January 2007

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    • Middletown
      • 63 courses – 361 circulations since September 2006

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What does the future hold?

  • Continue building our TOR collections (new courses and additional copies)
  • Seek additional funding from campuses
  • Encourage faculty to decide how essential their texts are
  • Point students toward online book stores
  • Statewide e-textbook pilot projects
  • Return of legislative mandate to purchase all required texts?