Affordability of course materials: Reactive and proactive measures at The Ohio State University Libraries

Shifting Priorities: A Look at a Course Adopted Text (CATs) e-Book Program and How Its Success Realigned One Library’s e-Book Collection Priorities

“…By digging into textbook adoption lists for social science courses at Florida Gulf Coast University, Rokusek and Cooke found that 18% were available as unlimited access e-books, while 71% of assigned materials were traditional or "true" textbooks and not available to purchase via the preferred unlimited access user model. They also reported that upper-level courses were twice as likely to benefit from CATs e-books, which was a similar finding for Ohio State's CATs e-book program (Dotson and Olivera 2020).…”

“…One dividing line that can define these programs is where in the CATs process libraries have integrated themselves. Is it downstream of faculty selection of required materials or is it upstream of faculty selection or both (Dotson and Olivera 2020)? Downstream of faculty selection usually means a partnership has been established with the campus bookstore, faculty submit requests to the bookstore, and then the data or list of CATs is shared with the library.…”

“…While bookstore partnership and collaborations are requisite for some of these CATs programs, bookstore buy-in may not exist at every institution or necessarily be preferred for CATs acquisition programs. In discussing Ohio State's affordability initiatives, Dotson calls the downstream purchasing of CATs a "passive" strategy and one that misses the potential to position the library collection and its liaison or subject librarians as more influential voices in curriculum selection and CATs adoption decisions (Dotson and Olivera 2020). Examples of "upstream" programs, like Ohio State's, fill the literature, and they too take on various shapes and sizes.…”