#Textbookbroke: from Student Cost Surprises to Student Success

• The College Library’s Syllabus Review Project – Academic Year 2022 - 2023

  • To gather as much information as possible about required course materials

  • Approved by the Provost and Dean of the Faculty

  • Syllabi accessed via the college’s Course Management System/CMS

  • Course-by-course review by several library colleagues noting:

    • Types of course materials (books, articles, OER, etc.)

    • Intended source for content (bookstore, library, amazon.com, etc.)

Fascinating trends:

• More than ⅓ of classes had only low/no cost required course materials

• More than ¾ of classes featured materials that were provided at no cost

• There are notable differences between, and within, academic departments – which will lead to librarians holding informed conversations with faculty.

Ryan Nadeau
Research and Student Success Librarian
rnadeau@fandm.edu
717-358-3896

For a complete review of our affordability studies of both F&M students and faculty, please see:

Barnes, C.A., Vine, S., & Nadeau, R. (2024) Assessing textbook affordability before and after the COVID-19 pandemic: Results of student and faculty surveys. The Journal of Academic Librarianship 50(2).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2024.102864