Stores and Libraries Team Up for Affordability

Store/library partnerships at Bloomsburg University, Kutztown University, Franklin and Marshall College, University of Pittsburgh, and Villanova University were spotlighted in an Oct. 13 webinar sponsored by Affordable Learning PA, a grant-funded project of the Pennsylvania Academic Library Consortium Inc. ALPA supports an active community of practice on OER at colleges and universities in the region.

One of the ways in which the partnerships have been most fruitful is in working together to assist faculty in understanding all their options with course materials, including what’s available in open resources. Campus libraries were also able to help back up the store’s adoption requests to faculty.

At the University Stores at Pitt, for instance, Executive Director Monica Rattigan said she’d had trouble getting faculty who had adopted OER materials to submit those titles along with their book orders. Many instructors didn’t see why the store would need that information. But the campus library helped in getting professors to realize the value to students of showing OERs on the course booklists.

At both Villanova and Franklin and Marshall, the library encouraged faculty to get all book orders in on time, so the store could shop around for best pricing for students.

Since campus libraries are in the business of lending materials to as many patrons as possible, it’s easy to see why libraries are enthusiastic about OER adoptions. But it may seem counterintuitive to some for the campus store to share that enthusiasm and work with the library. That cooperative support for OER has paid off for the Bloomsburg University Store.

“Our OER efforts have helped us not be the bad guy any more,” said Manager Laura Heger. Students are now coming around to see that the store is on their side.

“OER and the bookstore are not mutually exclusive,” said Jackie Downing, faculty liaison for the Kutztown Campus Store. She noted the importance of making “the campus aware of (the store’s) high-minded goals” with affordable solutions such as OER. 

None of the store panelists participating in the webinar felt that their bottom lines had been impacted much by faculty using OER. “We’ve not seen significant losses in the store,” Rattigan said.

For the stores with inclusive access programs, the close relationship with the library also means librarians are more aware of the program’s scope and can promote it to faculty when OER is not an option. “If I’m working with faculty and can’t get them OER but I’m pretty sure it’s available in inclusive access, I can refer them to that,” said Katie Yelinek, government documents and reference librarian at Bloomsburg.

The store/library partnerships work, in large measure, because both parties communicate often and share information. For the campus store, that means making faculty adoptions available to the library. 

“Fortunately, this panel of bookstores is very collaborative, but I have spoken to libraries in other states that have not had that experience,” said Dan Stafford, OER and emerging tech librarian at Kutztown. Linda Hauck, business librarian at Villanova, suggested that institutions could include sharing adoption information in their contracts or agreements with stores operated by third parties.