It’s Not in our Budget: Crowdfunding & Seeking Funds for Textbook Affordability By Brittany Blanchard (Northern Arizona University, Cline Library) <Brittany.Blanchard@nau.edu> and Theresa Carlson (Northern Arizona University, Cline Library) <Theresa.Carlson@nau.edu>
Introduction Textbook prices have increased approximately 160% over the past 20 years, even when controlling for an overall inflation rate of 60.1%.1 On average, students at four year institutions pay $1,200 annually for textbooks and supplies.2 The ability for students to access required course materials directly correlates to student success, lower Drop/Fail/Withdraw rates and higher retention and completion rates. In a 2022 survey of more than 13,000 Florida college students, due to textbook costs, 53.5% do not purchase the required textbook; 43.7% take fewer courses; 38.5% do not register for a specific course; and, 32.4% earn a poor grade from not affording the textbook and 24.2% drop a course.3 This information corresponds to a National Survey by USPIRG taken in September 2020 which included 82 participating institutions and more than 5,000 responses. In 2020, 65% of students surveyed reported not buying a textbook because of cost; two percentage points higher than the previous year. The number of students who report not buying an access code increased from 17 percent in 2019 to 21 percent in 2020. Students who faced food insecurity were more heavily impacted by unaffordable course materials. 82% of students who reported missing a meal due to the pandemic also reported skipping buying textbooks; furthermore, 38% reported they skipped buying an access code.4 S tu dents wh o a r e f ro m h is t or ic al l y un ders erve d backgrounds, part-time, first generation, and/or financial aid recipients often feel the burden of textbook costs more acutely. A study at California State University Channel Islands found that Latine, first generation, and financial aid dependent students felt higher stress from textbook costs than their white, non-first generation, and non-financial aid dependent counterparts.5 While Northern Arizona University’s estimated $900 annual books and supply cost is below the national average of $1200,6 it is still a challenge for students to afford course materials. Of NAU’s 22,000 students, approximately 40% identify as a race other than White [6]; 46% identify as first-generation7 and 33% received a Pell Grant.8 According to The Institute for College Access and Success, NAU students graduate with an average of $22,587 in debt, with 55% of graduates owing money.9 In addition, the cost of housing in Flagstaff is 43% higher and groceries are 16% higher than the national average.10
Finding Funding for Textbook Affordability These economic challenges, which are already common on our campus, became exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. In response to the pandemic, Northern Arizona University shifted to a hybrid online/in-person model for the Fall 2020 semester. This new approach meant that not all students would return to campus and those that did may not be in physical classrooms.
16 Against the Grain / December 2023 - January 2024
Quarantines for students testing positive for Covid added more complications. Worried at the possibility that not all students would have access, or could afford their required texts, the library wanted to highlight our collections as a possible solution. While we knew of some books used in courses due to our Course Reserves system, we suspected that there were far more texts in our collections that were being required in courses. To find out this information, we would need a list of required texts, course numbers and faculty names, all of which was most readily available through our campus’ bookstore. Despite not having an established relationship with the bookstore, they were agreeable to our request and provided a spreadsheet with most of the information that we needed to get started. Spreadsheet clean-up combined with additional data entry took two individuals approximately 20 hours of work. This was due to some unfamiliarity with Excel, not knowing what information was needed and duplicative efforts. Since this time, the bookstore has adjusted the formatting of their spreadsheet which allows us to use an Excel plugin called Fuzzy Lookup to make comparisons easy. We also utilize the functionality inherent in Proquest’s Rialto to do comparisons with books we currently own and those available to purchase. Once we had a clean spreadsheet, we were able to do an ISBN and title comparison search in our Library Management System (LMS), Ex Libris’ Alma. We were pleasantly surprised that the library already owned over 150 electronic versions of texts used in existing courses. These titles came with varying usage limitations from unlimited to one seat. Since our Course Reserves model was similarly (if not more) limited, we made the decision to alert faculty to all the options, including titles that only offered one seat. Utilizing enrollment numbers from the previous Spring semester and the projections for Fall 2020 classes, we estimated a yearly cost of over $500,000 to students in purchasing these texts. However, based on the comparatively low usage numbers, these students were not using our collection. Did students not realize that they could access their texts for free through the library? We could not contact students directly, but we could alert their faculty. After gathering the permalinks for materials in our catalog, we sent an email to faculty alerting them to the text’s availability and asking them to pass the information along to their students. The responses we received were overwhelmingly positive. One History faculty member said, “Amazing! What a gift for my students!” While another faculty member said, “I’m shocked by how much textbooks cost these days, so I’m sure this will really help my students.” Seeing how successful this small initiative was, we wondered if we could purchase additional texts to provide even more students with access to their required texts at no cost to them. Where would we get the money?
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