Textbooks on Reserve Wrap-Up

The Textbooks on Reserve (TOR) program has been in place at the Gardner-Harvey Library since Fall Semester 2006. I thought it would be a good idea to let you know how the program has been used during the past academic year (2007-2008) and what changes and additions lie ahead.

TOR started as a collection of textbooks that covered about 40 courses at Miami Middletown. We now offer textbooks that serve as the main text for over 70 courses, along with supplementary materials that accompany several texts.

Use of the program has grown steadily over the last two years. This fall (2007) we tallied 232 items being checked out for use, and that was exceeded in the spring (2008) for a total of 369 checkouts. As of May 12, 2008, the textbooks included in the program have been checked out 793 times since the inception of TOR. Just last week we passed the 800 checkout mark, meaning that items held in the program have circulated an average of nearly 8 times each.

The ten most popular textbooks used by students at MUM are the following (listed with their total lifetime checkouts):

• Elementary and Intermediate Algebra (MTH 101/102) - 98
• Panorama (SPN 101/102) - 77
• Prealgebra (MTH 002) - 74
• Materials and Processes in Manufacturing (ENT 152) - 55
• Engineering Materials (ENT 151) - 48
• Hole's Human Anatomy & Physiology (ZOO 171) - 35
• General Chemistry (CHM 137/141) - 34
• New Perspectives on Microsoft Office 2007 (CIT 154) - 29
• Psychology (PSY 111) - 28
• Microbiology, a Systems Approach (MBI 111/161) - 23

Panorama had been our most popular book for four straight semesters, but Spring 2008 uses pushed the MTH 101/102 book ahead.

The numbers only tell part of the story. Each checkout represents a student who needed to use a given book; perhaps for just two hours, perhaps overnight. Students have taken books to class, studied them in the library, and worked on problem sets at home. The stories that we hear as we interact with these students has continued to motivate us to build and maintain TOR.

In building this collection of textbooks we have benefited tremendously from the donation of textbooks by faculty members and students, funds provided by Miami Middletown Student Government, the use of department library acquisitions funds to purchase textbooks, and the library funding we are provided by the campus. In the year ahead, we will receive further funding for TOR from a donor (more on this later) which will help us keep up our current coverage of courses and expand that reach.

So, we head into summer with the goal of buying new texts, replacing changed editions, and looking for more needs we can meet. One thing we would like to work on this year is a Textbook Donation Program at the end of each semester. Students might decide to donate their used texts to the library for TOR rather than keeping them or selling them back. Again, more on this later.

Thank you to everyone who has supported TOR and helped us spread the word among students! We greatly appreciate your help.

John