Faculty Guide to the Library

Library staff have been working to provide alternative access to the print textbook reserves collection, which will not be accessible due to safety concerns for some time. A significant portion of the books on reserve are print copies of required textbooks, and students usually cannot access them without coming into the library. To support instructors and students over the next several months, we are developing new approaches to how we acquire course textbooks, and we are letting our existing textbooks circulate like part of our regular collection.

This work is hampered by textbook publishers who do not provide electronic purchasing options for libraries. Many existing course textbooks are simply unavailable to libraries in any other format than print. Textbook publishers have built their profit models around selling e-textbooks directly to students. Despite this, we also know that the cost of textbooks and other course materials represent a major financial hurdle for students at NEIU.

We are working with instructors to explore and identify viable textbook alternatives, including:

1. Using an existing e-book in the relevant subject area from the library’s e-book collection or requesting that the library purchase one. There are many academic e-books that aren’t considered textbooks, and are therefore available for the library to purchase (indicate your preference for an ebook in the comments section).
2. Some online resources the Libraries are already providing (including ebooks and streaming video) could also be adopted for classroom use. 
3. Adopting an open educational resource (OER). OERs are freely available educational materials that are openly licensed to allow for re-use and modification by instructors.

Any instructors teaching a course are also welcome to contact the library at any time for support with sourcing their course materials.

If you have any questions, please contact your subject specialist.