Why are textbooks not offered at the library?

Librarians are often asked by students why we do not purchase copies of the textbooks used in UHD’s classes. We understand that students would like to have copies of their textbooks available in the library, but there are some very good reasons why we do not usually buy them.

Each instructor chooses his or her own textbooks for class sections. This means that there are many different textbooks assigned each semester, and that they change from semester to semester. It would be very difficult for the library to keep up with these changes, and to keep a textbook collection current.

Just like every UHD college and department, the library operates on a limited budget. As every student knows, textbooks can be very expensive. If the library were to buy every assigned textbook we would have much less money available for other books and services, including online resources such as e-books and full-text article databases. We would then be less able to help students with the research that their courses require.

Textbook publishers need to make a profit in order to stay in business. If university libraries collected textbooks regularly, textbook sales would drop. Therefore some publishers will not sell their textbooks to libraries like ours.

Even if the library did purchase textbooks, the benefits to each student would be limited. More than likely, textbooks would only be available for use within the library. This would limit the number of students who could read each book each day, and would create scheduling problems for students.

The library staff understands that textbooks can be expensive. Unfortunately, the library is not in a position to collect textbooks. We can, however, help you to find any other information you need in order to succeed in your classes here at UHD. Whenever you need help answering a question or researching a topic come to see us at the library’s Information Desk, or click on Ask a Librarian on our website, and we will be glad to do whatever we can to help you!