In order to promote equal access to course readings, librarians can now purchase select required course materials. These are defined as required readings for a course as assigned by the instructor. To request streaming media for course materials, please use Media Reserves.
Faculty are encouraged to place print textbooks or other assigned books on Course Reserves. Faculty are responsible for filling out the course reserves form.
In addition to purchasing assigned course books and offering course reserves for materials already in our collections, librarians are available to help faculty locate Open Educational Resources (OERs). Contact your subject area librarian with questions.
Purchases are based on:
Librarian discretion
Fund availability
Class size
Course frequency
Tulane University Librarians may acquire a single copy of a textbook after verifying that it meets the following criteria:
It is available as an ebook, paperback, or hardcover
It is available for institutional use
For ebooks, priority is given to materials available with the following types of permissions:
Multi-user access
Digital Rights Management (DRM) free
Tulane University Libraries are unable to purchase textbooks that:
Contain supplemental instructional materials separate from the textbook
Are unavailable for institutional purchase from our vendors
Are loose-leaf or unbound
Cost over $500.00 (for ebooks) or over $200.00 (for print books)
Instructors should bear in mind that many books and textbooks are not available for purchase and digital lending by university libraries. The following publishers, for instance, do not offer digital versions of textbooks for institutional purchase:
Cengage Learning
McGraw-Hill Education
Oxford University Press
Pearson Higher Education
Sage Textbooks
Elsevier imprints (including Elsevier Health Science, Mosby, and Saunders)
Use the following link to suggest a textbook for purchase: https://library.tulane.edu/services/suggest-purchase.
