Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Chelsea Wilkerson, Dodge City freshman, checks a book out to a student in Watson Library. The university put together a textbook taskforce looking for ways to bring students cheaper books. A textbook checkout may become available to students at university libraries.
After the Legislature withdrew a bill to provide tax-free textbooks, it looked to the University of Kansas textbook task force for alternative ways to reduce costs.
The bill was withdrawn after testimony recommended monitoring the task force’s new implementations.
The University is one year ahead of what the Legislature could do, said Hannah Love, Dodge City junior and task force member.
“We looked at things to do on campus to solve problems with textbooks,” Love said.
The task force, which began work in the fall, consists of three faculty members, two students and two staff members.
Early conversation focused on communicating textbook needs so an adequate supply of used and new books could be purchased for the lowest price, said Iris Fischer, assistant professor of English and task force member.
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I’m really excited about the project. It gives the library the chance to expand services for students.
-library assistant Heather Howard
The task force found that orders submitted on or before bookstore deadlines saved students the most money. Not only could those students buy more used books, but they could get a higher buyback value if the book was being reused, Fischer said.
“The subcommittee hopes to see more orders submitted in a timely matter,” Fischer said.
The task force also found that an alternative to textbook purchasing was the creation of a textbook library.
A textbook library, much like the reserved book system, makes textbooks available for students to check out.
Heather Howard, library assistant, said textbooks must meet certain requirements to be placed in the textbook library.
The textbooks must cost more than $100 and be required for a class of more than 100 students. The task force also decided that the 22 most-purchased books on campus would be available, including books for math, English and western civilizations courses.
Love said students could check out the books for a short amount of time, and they could be reserved in advance.
The Student Senate committees will review a bill to provide funding for the textbook library tonight. The bill asks for $26,515.29 from the Senate reserve account. If the bill passes committees, it will move to full Senate next week.
Howard said that with funding, the textbook library should be in place for the fall semester.
“I’m really excited about the project,” Howard said. “It gives the library the chance to expand services for students.”
Love said the textbook task force was successful in finding solutions to lower textbook costs.
“People don’t realize there’s a huge effort to communicate between faculty, staff and students to fix this problem,” Love said.
Kansan staff writer Ashlee Kieler can be contacted at akieler@kansan.com.
— Edited by Carissa Pedigo
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