As a way to support student success and help reduce student out-of-pocket costs, University Libraries is promoting the use of library-owned eBooks as course-adopted textbooks.
There are already several courses at Murray State University using eBooks owned and provided by University Libraries as the primary course material, and, as a result, students in those courses have been saved the expense of purchasing the textbook. Examples of some of the Libraries' eBooks being used as textbooks in courses can be seen in the box below.
On this guide, you will find resources to help you search the eBooks the University Libraries have available for use as textbooks, learn a little bit more about the embargoing of textbook content, and what to do once you have selected an eBook you might what to use as a textbook.
If you have any questions about this program, please contact Cris Ferguson.
To provide an example of the usage and financial savings, the University Libraries purchased 2 copies of the Cabling eBook featured in the example box below for use as the primary textbook in a course. The total cost to the Libraries was $270. Since that purchase, the eBooks have been used by 147 unique users, been downloaded in whole or in part 54 times, and accessed 286 times. If each of the 147 unique users had purchased their own copy of Cabling at the cover price of $89.99, this would have represented a total student out-of-pocket cost of $13,228.53, as opposed the University Libraries' $270 investment.
