Examine the library’s role as options proliferate regarding textbooks in higher education- due to the high cost of textbooks- including librarians facilitating faculty selecting open educational resource textbooks, professors dropping textbooks and using primary source resources instead, libraries as publishers creating open educational resource textbooks, libraries purchasing and providing textbooks to students, including students whose financial aid has not come in, as part of Student success initiatives. Objective: Review this range of options and consider their implications for libraries specifically for acquisitions, scholarly communications, student outreach, library as place. Consider open education resources, both as a financial boon to students, cost cutting measure for administration, or limit of intellectual content. Ways to include audience: I’m interested to hear what audience members’ institutions are doing regarding textbooks and what they felt their options or responsibilities were What attendees can expect to learn: Review of the new options regarding textbooks and their implications for libraries; my institution’s (UALR) and another neighboring institution’s experience (UCA) with purchasing textbooks and other options considered, consideration of the context of the UA system’s new online only university module “e-Versity” mandating that only open educational resource textbooks can be chosen by faculty for their courses.
