Library E-Books as Course Reading Material

Faculty: It's a good idea to always check the Libraries holdings and/or contact your liaison librarian before requiring your students to purchase books required for your courses.

Last Fall and Spring, the Libraries participated in a VIVA (Virtual Library of Virginia) program intended to reduce the cost of course materials for Virginia students by matching titles on bookstore lists to e-books available for purchase by VIVA or already held in VIVA shared e-book collections. The program was successful in potentially saving $215,800 for ODU students. These books remain a permanent part of the Libraries collection and can be used for subsequent semesters by anyone.

Ideally, we would like faculty to adopt, adapt, or create open textbooks and other course materials, but making any course materials free or affordable for students is the ultimate goal. The Libraries may be able to purchase e-books with multi-user licenses as long as these are scholarly monographs, rather than bundled textbooks with access codes.

Contact Karen Vaughan, kvaughan@odu.edu, Head of Scholarly Communication & Publishing, or your library liaison to discuss your options.