Our students are facing a potential textbook crisis this fall. Many may not even realize it yet. But with in-person library services potentially greatly curtailed, one crucial source of textbooks – the library reserve desk – may not be readily available to our students.

The librarians are working to mitigate this crisis on several fronts. But some of the most effective remedies can come from faculty themselves. Here are some strategies we recommend:

• Assign readings from the library’s electronic collections. These are already paid for, and are free to our students.
• Make readings available on Blackboard. When being vigilant about avoiding copyright law violations, this can be an effective strategy.
• Use open educational resources (OERs) as course textbooks. This is the best long-term solution. OERs can be reused and adapted by anyone, and can be a very effective solution to prohibitive textbook costs.

Please don’t stick your students with huge textbook bills this fall! Take steps to reduce textbook costs while planning your reading list.

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