Library services help keep costs low for students

In fall 2024, the University Book Store launched Immediate Access ONE, a program which caps student costs at $259 per semester for required print and digital course materials. Other institutions implementing flat-rate textbook programs like ours have observed “adoption creep,” where faculty begin to assign more materials in their courses than is necessary, leading to inflated costs and reduced value for students. 

Thankfully, that was not the case at Iowa State University this year, and the flat rate will remain $259 in fall 2025! This is thanks to the hard work of instructors across the university who have continued to assign the same or lower cost materials this year.  

To help with these efforts, many instructors have worked with the University Library to identify low- and no-cost materials for their courses. This includes articles and books available through the library’s collections and open educational resources (OER): free, adaptable materials that have been shared by instructors to support student learning. Some faculty have even gone above and beyond to create their own OER for use at Iowa State. 

Jonathan Wickert, provost emeritus and president’s chair in engineering, shared the following about his experience: 

“I had the opportunity to work with the library a lot during my years as provost. Their faculty and staff champion multiple programs that serve our university well. As a faculty member now, the library’s support has enabled me to write an open graduate-level engineering textbook. As an OER, this book will be accessible to a global audience of students and instructors, regardless of means or location, and will help in a small way to reduce financial barriers for advanced study.” 

Interested in assigning library content in your course?  

Make sure your materials are supported by Course Reserves, whose staff partners with instructors to provide access and pay copyright fees for required course materials. Most items are provided digitally through Canvas, allowing students easy, free, 24/7 access to these materials. For more information, see: Course Reserves for Instructors. 

Not sure where to start? 

Chat with your subject librarian for help identifying potentially useful materials including: library-licensed e-books, articles, open educational resources (OER), and/or open access journal articles that may be useful in the classroom. 

For more information about the support available for creating, editing, or remixing OER for your courses, contact Abbey Elder, aelder@iastate.edu