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Required textbooks available at King

Of the available 100 textbooks, most have been checked out since they were made available Jan. 8.
Of the available 100 textbooks, most have been checked out since they were made available Jan. 8.

Christina Meram

Of the available 100 textbooks, most have been checked out since they were made available Jan. 8. (Michael Pickering)

Instead of pulling out the wallet to purchase textbooks this spring, Miami University students will have the opportunity to swipe a card at the library - and use selected textbooks for free.

To help ease some of the financial burden put on students and their families with the high costs of textbooks, a committee of Associated Student Government (ASG) students along with Judith Sessions, dean and university librarian, and Dean of Students

Susan Mosley-Howard created the Textbooks on Reserve program for this semester.

As the program currently stands, the 50 most popular classes' required texts are available at King Library.

"At this point we have about 100 textbooks and most of them have been checked out at least once," said Kris Buell of the King Library staff.

The program is jointly funded by King Library, the Miami University Parents Council and ASG.

Melonia Bennett, ASG Secretary for Academic Affairs, said that the program is an alternative for students.

"ASG has worked tirelessly trying to find new ways to make texts cheaper," Bennett said. "After last year's Booklist Bill (proposed by ASG) was unexpectedly shot down by university senate's academic policy, ASG hopped on board the Textbooks on Reserve project."

Sessions also raised more than $10,000 to help execute the development of the program.

To help decide which textbooks should be part of the program, the committee first looked at the 50 classes with the highest enrollment each semester and then looked at the cost of the books required for these courses.

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"We looked at the costs of the texts, and pulled out those whose price is (more than) $100," Mosley-Howard said.

Although course packets and workbooks will not be available, the 50 most heavily enrolled classes will have one to two copies of each text available for rental periods of two hours at a time.

A list of these courses and textbooks can be found on both ASG (www.muohio.edu/asg) and University Libraries Web sites.


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