As we move into the summer semester and plan for the fall, Gleeson Library invites faculty to consider e-textbook and streaming video options for your courses. Print and DVD course reserves are unavailable while the physical library is closed for Shelter in Place. Using ebooks and streaming video will ensure that your course resources are available to students.
Open Education Resources (OER) are a free alternative to the commercial traditional textbook market. Many traditional textbook publishers do not offer multi-user license options to libraries, which places a heavy burden of cost onto the students. Choosing an OER electronic textbook removes a financial and physical barrier to student engagement. Please visit the Open Education Resources guide to learn more about finding and publishing OER materials. If you have additional questions about OER, please contact Charlotte Roh, the Scholarly Communications Librarian.
If you must use a textbook that is not freely available, follow these steps:
- Search the library catalog for ebook access
- If the library has the ebook, contact your library liaison to verify how many users the ebook license allows
- If the library does not have the ebook, contact your library liaison to see if the library can acquire it. Please note that not all publishers offer multi-user ebook licenses to libraries. Ebooks on sites such as Amazon are licensed differently and may not be available to libraries.
If you plan to use individual chapters or articles, you can upload PDFs to the electronic course reserves. Please note that your course reserves must be submitted every semester, and that your students can access the electronic course reserves on the library website. Please contact the course reserves department (gleesonreserves@office.usfca.edu) if you have additional questions.
The library also has several streaming video collections. You can search the library catalog to see if the library has access to a specific title. If the library does not have access to a film, faculty can place a video request through the online form. Sometimes we can obtain access to streaming versions of DVDs that you use for classes. Please use the request form to make those requests, and contact Debbie Benrubi if you have any questions. You can also send Debbie a list of videos you wish to use, to make sure they’re available. We may be unable to fill requests made less than three weeks in advance.
Gleeson Library is here for your online research needs. If you have additional questions about online resources for your courses, please do not hesitate to contact your library liaison.