Affordable Textbooks and Teaching Materials

The purpose of the Affordable Textbooks and Teaching Materials (ATTM) initiative is to promote awareness of and access to course materials that are up-to-date, satisfy academic needs, and are affordable to students.

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Affordable Textbooks and Teaching Materials (ATTM) provides informative, effective and active solutions to the rising cost of textbooks, such as electronic textbooks, textbooks on reserve at the library, and the Emory Barnes & Noble bookstore’s textbook rental program.

Information For Faculty

Resources for Faculty looking to provide affordable textbook options and/or alternatives to students:

Online Course Reserves in Canvas

The availability of Course Reserves at Emory Libraries offsets the high cost of textbooks for students who suffer financial hardship. Course Reserves also allows you to easily share content with students in your Canvas course.

Print Textbooks and Other Reserve Materials 

Articles, book chapters, syllabi, lecture slides, assignments, and URLs can be made accessible online.  Books, DVDs, and other materials owned by either the libraries or instructors can be placed on physical reserve at your library.

E-books

In support of teaching, learning and textbook affordability, Emory is building a collection of ebooks that can be adopted for courses, with an emphasis on those with no use restrictions.  Faculty are encouraged to request the acquisition of titles for course adoption. 

Open Educational Resources

Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that you can use for free without permission. They include materials like textbooks, syllabi, lectures, assignments, learning activities, and tests or quizzes.

Barnes & Noble Affordable Textbook Resources

Barnes & Noble tries to stock books in as many options as possible, including lower-priced used and rentals. It also has digital and OER selections.

Additional Library Resources

  • Rose Library Curriculum Portal. Rose Library offers archival and rare book resources in many areas such as  poetry and literature, African American history and print culture, and Southern history, and many others. Contact Rose Library for resource consultations and scheduling class visits.
  • Finding Free and Reusable Media. The Scholarly Communications Office has a guide for finding free and reusable media that you can include in your class materials or scholarly publications.

Information For Students

Resources for students looking for affordable textbook options and/or alternatives

Course Reserves Online in Canvas

Students can find course materials (both online materials and physical items available for loan) by clicking on the Library Course Reserves link within their Canvas courses.

Print Course Reserves in the Library

Instructors often place books and media materials on physical reserves at the library service desks. Physical reserves items are available for shortened loan periods. To see if an item is on reserves for your course, click on the Library Course Reserves link within your Canvas course to view the item list.

Please note that the library does not purchase textbooks for reserves or for the collection. The library also does not request textbooks through Interlibrary Loan.

Course Reserves FLIP Collection

The Emory FLIP (First Generation Low-Income Partnership) Lending Library was started with the goal of helping first generation and low-income students acquire books for their courses. All FLIP books are donated by other students. Available books range across multiple classes from all majors.

Only students signed up for the FLIP program can view and checkout books in the FLIP Lending Library, visible in the Course Reserves course titled Flip Book List.

E-books

While we don't have textbooks, we do have over 1 million ebooks available, many of which are used for course readings! Titles in the public domain are also available via several sites, including HathiTrust, Project Gutenberg, and Internet Archive.

Barnes & Noble Resources

Barnes & Noble tries to stock books in as many options as possible, including lower-priced used and rentals. It also has digital and OER selections.

Finding Free and Reusable Media

The Scholarly Communications Office has a guide for finding free and reusable media that you can include in your class materials or scholarly publications.

Emory Student Resources to Support Academic Success

Many textbooks offer additional helpful resources, like video content, quizzes, etc. If you need help beyond what the textbook offers, Emory has excellent resources both for specific classes and types of assignments.

  • EPASS. For tutoring for specific classes, use EPASS tutoring. You log into ASST to schedule an EPASS tutoring session. EPASS sessions are available for courses like Biology 120 and 141, Econ 112, Math 111 and 112, Physics 141 and many more.
  • ESL Tutoring. ESL tutoring is available for help with writing, reading, speaking, and multi-modal assignments associated with Emory College courses. These sessions are also booked through ASST.
  • Emory Writing Center. The Emory Writing Center offers tutoring for your writing projects. "Tutors can talk with you about your purpose, organization, audience, design choices, or use of sources. They can also work with you on sentence-level concerns (including grammar and word choice), but they will not proofread for you.
  • Ask a Subject Librarian. If you are working on a research project, you can make an appointment with a Subject Librarian or get help through the Library's Ask A Librarian service.