Connecting Students to Free Course Materials: An eTextbook Portal Using Digital Commons and WordPress

Abstract

When you think of textbook affordability, your mind likely goes to open educational resources (OER). Numerous academic libraries are involved in OER efforts, and institutions with successful OER programs see entire departments or large classes adopt OER instead of traditional, costly textbooks. However, even with the most successful programs, not every class will use OER. This is where library-sourced ebooks can help fill some gaps to promote textbook affordability. It is meaningful when the library can provide an ebook that matches an expensive textbook used for a course. This means that one library resource can make a big impact in a student’s life. For example, a student might have needed to choose whether to use their money on a textbook or groceries, and then experienced negative learning outcomes from not having access to the course material. The meaningful impact of providing such a library ebook is tempered, unfortunately, with what can be a daunting task for the library to sift through thousands or even tens of thousands of course textbook lists each semester. After that is another daunting task to alert the faculty and students in time for classes to begin. To enhance the way libraries promote ebooks matching course materials, some libraries have created what the authors call an eTextbook portal. This article will discuss what an eTextbook portal is, examples of some, how the authors developed one, and what the reader could consider if aiming to create one at their institution.