Maverick Textbook Reserve contributes to affordable education opportunities
Started in 2008, Maverick Textbook Reserve initiative is aimed at helping reduce the out-of-pocket costs students pay for their education. Maverick Textbook Reserve allows students to borrow textbooks for free, allowing them to study the assigned material.
“It was originally framed as another way to reduce the textbook cost burden for students by providing them a checkout option at the Memorial Library of the more expensive, heavily used textbooks,” said Director of Facility Services David Cowan. “It was unique in that the University Bookstore (a.k.a. “Maverick Shop”) actually provided funds to support a ‘free’ checkout option administered by Library Services.”
“Students, essentially, are able to go to the library and borrow textbooks for a limited amount of time,” said student body president Roshit Niraula. “Also, students are able to go online to take a look at which textbooks are available at the library, and they can go in and check those textbooks out for a limited amount of time, completely free of charge.”
The textbook reserve offers books for over 30 departments at Minnesota State. The list of classes for which the textbooks are available to check out can be found on the university website. According to digital initiatives librarian Heidi Southworth, textbooks are selected for the high enrollment, high cost and general education courses.
“Kris Brockman is the bookstore manager, and so what happens is textbooks are selected and then sent to the library, to Steve Johnson. And Steve Johnson is the person who makes all the magic happen. He’s the one that actually processes the books and makes them available in the library for anyone that comes in there,” Southworth said.
Maverick Textbook Reserve emerged as a collaborative effort of Student Government, the library and the bookstore. Originally the reserve had only 16 titles available for students. Over the years, more books were added to the list and the use of the resource has increased among students.
“Last year, because of the effective partnerships with student government, the library, and the bookstore, we saw a 24% increase in use of the textbook reserve. We had nearly a 40% increase in web page views from people looking for course reserves,” said the Dean of Library and Learning, Christopher Corley. “My colleague Steve Johnson, one of our library public access technicians, maintains the data for the textbook reserves and oversees the program. Last year, he recorded 2,407 loans overall.”
“We started off the semester by going through the library’s collections, pulling books that we found were on the bookstore list, and making those available on reserve,” said Southworth. “So we’ve expanded our courses beyond the maverick textbook reserve to other classes as well.”
According to Corley, the biggest numbers of users last year were from Health 210 (Emergency Medical Responder First Aid and CPR) and Ethnic Studies 101 (Introduction to Multicultural and Ethnic Studies).
Faculty members can help increase the use of the reserve by promoting and explicitly explaining the program and the options students have in their textbook choices. The data shows that the highest use comes from the classes where the reserve was promoted by faculty members. All faculty who have textbooks on reserve receive notifications from the library that their books are available.
In the past, for classes with high demand on books, Maverick Textbook Reserve had a limit on how long the students could use the books. Library Technician Steven Johnson said they try to make the services more convenient for students.
“We are actually experimenting with a seven day loan period for the Maverick Textbook Program, all copies are able to be checked out for seven days except for the last copy of any textbook title, which can be loaned for 4 hours at a time,” said Johnson.
Southworth said the Maverick Textbook Reserve also provides ebooks, which students can access at any time.
“We try to purchase what’s called unlimited e-books as much as possible. An unlimited ebook is basically an unlimited license so that anyone who’s affiliated with the university can come and read that ebook online,” Southworth said. “However, we do have some limitations. Some classes may only have one or three users. So if somebody goes in and finds the electronic book and checks it out, then you know, others can’t get it. So, we try to buy as many unlimited licenses as possible. But we are restricted in a number of ways.”
The reserve is also limited in the funds they receive. According to Cowan, during the first year of the program, the reserve accepted a $2,000 bookstore donation and a $4,600 Student Government allocation. In the second year, the reserve got $15,000 from a bookstore contract earmark and $5,000 from a MinnState one-time grant. Last year, $22,200 was spent on inventory located on the first floor of the library. Bookstore contract earmark with Maverick Shop (Follett’s) now at $26,500 annually.
“It takes a team of people to make something like the Maverick Textbook Reserve happen,” Corley said. “While Steve Johnson in the library and Kris Brockman from Follett’s are the key collaborators of the program, we now also have a half dozen professionals who at one time or another contribute to this and our other affordability projects.”
Caption: Students are visiting ‘Maverick Shop’ to purchase books and college essentials. Textbooks can be bought at the shop or borrowed in the Memorial Library. (Alexis Darkow/The Reporter)
Write to Amal.sharafkhodjaeva@mnsu.edu