Physical vs. eBook and Streaming Course Reserves: Trends, Preferences, Concerns, and Future Viability

Even before the Covid pandemic, physical course reserve circulation was declining due to the preference for digital textbooks and the increasing need to purchase add on material. Trends that seemed to be slowly evolving are now in need of immediate solutions due to continuing budgetary restraints and patron expectations. Consequently, our library has begun to study the short and long term viability of course reserves to ascertain whether our continued investment is sustainable. This presentation will include our findings regarding cost versus use for both physical and ebook titles on course reserves, syllabus matching to inform course reserve acquisition, use of controlled digital lending to maximize our print textbooks, issues encountered concerning pricing, licensing, and limited availability for textbooks purchasable as ebooks with multiple user licenses, and, similarly, the increased demand for streaming content in lieu of much cheaper DVDs. What can we do to continue supplying course reserve materials to students based on preferences given increasing problems associated with cost and availability? If a decision is made to reduce the library’s role in supplying course reserves, what effect does that have on loan statistics, relationships with faculty, and general library support students encounter to become more informed regarding library