Students to save on books

By Matt Reinig

Published Jan. 29, 2008

MU Libraries and University Bookstore officials said that a plan to create course packets will save students about $10,000 a year and that the savings would be passed on to students.

The program is a collaboration between the libraries and the bookstore.

Student and Auxiliary Services spokeswoman Michelle Froese said the library has been able to negotiate some contracts that allow the university to make photocopies of journal articles without adding an additional royalty charge.

“They’ve already started trying to identify those articles that have already had that contract made,” Froese said. “Instructors are choosing materials that go into a course packet, and when they receive that in Mizzou Media they check if it’s also an online journal, they check with the library to see what the library’s contract specifies with the publisher.”

Mizzou Media and the library are working on a case-by-case basis to determine which articles can be duplicated, Froese said.

Students in some programs will benefit more than others, she said.

“Most of them are probably going to be in the sciences because that’s typically the type of online contracts that the library would have,” Froese said. “I would say a lot of those are going to be the science-type journals, typically from a publisher such as Elsevier.”

The articles are made available to students through an online program called Electronic Reserve. Through the program, professors can put library articles online so students can read or print the articles, MU Libraries spokeswoman Shannon Cary said.

“You can go to the E-reserve system, which is run through the library, just like we have a reserve system in the library where you come in, get a book for your class, and you can have it for a couple of hours,” she said.

The Mizzou Media program allows students to buy the articles and journals rather than borrowing them free of charge.

“My understanding is that still a fair amount of students like to have the course packet because they can go to the bookstore, get the course packet, pay for it, have it to hold,” Cary said. “But you can still save money and that’s another option.”

Cary said the bookstore also tries to cut costs through other used materials.

“Right now the University Bookstore is ranked second in the United States in the number of used books that they offer students,” Froese said. “This is according to the Large Stores Group, which is a group of about 75 college bookstores in the nation.”

Froese says that this is the most immediate way that students can save money on their educational materials because used textbooks cost 25 percent less than new textbooks.

“We’re ranked fourth nationally with the lowest operating and personnel costs.” Froese said. “Having low operating personnel costs is important and it’s something that they try to do by having shared buyers and shared support staff.”