Electronic Textbooks at the Libraries

The University Libraries collaborate with the Bookstore to acquire ebook copies of required and recommended course texts each term. This project began in Fall 2021 and so far has provided access to over 280 course texts as ebooks! We are very grateful to the University Bookstore for their willingness to embark on this project with us, and for their continued support.

This effort is part of an initiative in the Libraries to support Affordable Learning. A widely accepted definition of Affordable Educational Resources (set forth by Penn State University's 2016 OER Task Force Report) states that this term encompasses “Any required course material that students purchase for less than $50. This may include low-cost or no-cost options and library materials that do not have an open license.” 

The textbooks purchased under this initiative fall into the category of "library materials that do not have an open license." It is important to note that these are not open educational resources, as their use is restricted by copyright and there is still a cost involved, though not one that is passed along to the students. The Libraries are able to provide access to these paid resources by purchasing licenses for books made available as institutional ebook editions by the publisher.

In addition to purchased materials, this guide includes links to resources that were published openly. Faculty selected (and in some cases, created) open textbooks for their courses, and those items are easily identified with the designation "Unlimited Users, Open Educational Resource (OER)". To learn more about Open Educational Resources at Pacific, please visit our OER LibGuide

This guide consists of this introductory/home page, FAQ's and instructions for requesting course texts, and finally, tabs for each academic year. The academic year tabs include links to and information about each e-textbook the Libraries purchased that year, broken out by term. We have also listed all courses using each textbook, as well as how many users can access the full text at the same time. The titles are hyperlinked, and direct you to the record for each e-book in the library's online catalog.

New title lists will be added each term. 

If you have questions about this guide, or to learn more about Affordable Learning at Pacific, please reach out to our Open Resources Librarian, Meagan Button