Last semester, the Student Government Senate unanimously passed a bill allocating $10,000 to fund a web-based platform for instructors to select e-textbooks for their classes. The system includes items owned by LSU Libraries and has grown over the summer to add more texts.
During the 2014-15 school year, the library system provided e-books for 170 courses and had the potential to save students around $500,000. With SG’s support, LSU Libraries is able to “extend the reach of this project,” said instructional technologies librarian Emily Frank in an announcement on the LSU Libraries website.
Last fall, SG members looked for ways to contribute to LSU Libraries and decided on the donation to the e-textbook system, said SG Chief Adviser Zack Faircloth. Faircloth, who wrote the bill last semester, said senators wanted to focus on getting professors to use the system.
“If we can get faculty and instructors to buy into the e-book platform, then we would see more investment in it from the administration side,” Faircloth said. “Then more e-books would be out there for the students, and they would save more money.”
The e-textbook platform includes texts from several publishers, including Springer, Taylor and Francis, Wiley and university presses. The books allow for unlimited simultaneous users, so they never have to be checked out and are available even when being used by other students.
Faircloth said the library system did an excellent job improving the system before the beginning of the semester, and as a result, more professors are using it.
Over the summer, LSU Libraries reached out to all professors teaching courses with an e-textbook available, said Sigrid Kelsey, director of library communications and publications. Most of the them said they would add it to their syllabus, she said.
“Hopefully, we’ll be encouraging broader use of this,” Kelsey said. “We’ve tried to get the word out.”
In addition to using the books for free, students are able to download PDFs and send links to other students, Faircloth said. With all the advantages the platform provides, the donation was worth it, Faircloth said.
The donation is not the end of SG’s involvement with the system. Faircloth said the next part of its plan is to promote the platform on social media.
“The best way we can continue to grow it is to get it out to the students and to the faculty,” Faircloth said.
Biological engineering freshman Kendall Raymond said she had heard of the e-textbook system, but none of her professors mentioned having an e-textbook available. After spending more than $200 on textbooks, she said, she would consider using digital versions in the future.
Undeclared freshman Colette Muro said she hadn’t heard anything from her professors. She said she prefers the physical book over a digital copy, but the cost of textbooks might lead her to switch.
“I think I could get used to the e-textbook if it was free,” Muro said.

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Emily Brauner

LSU Libraries offers e-textbooks as an option for students who are trying to save money.