To help instructors move their teaching online during the pandemic, and to help students manage the costs associated with purchasing required textbooks, librarians are working with instructors to identify and purchase electronic versions of textbooks to use in their courses.
The greatest challenge is that many textbook publishers either do not have electronic versions of their textbooks or they are unwilling to sell them to libraries, presumably in order to protect their business model which relies on selling many copies of print and/or electronic textbooks direct to students.
The University of Guelph* estimates that approximately 85% of existing course textbooks are unavailable to libraries in any format other than print. From this, and our own experience, we know that the following publishers will not sell e-textbooks to libraries:
If you have been using a print textbook, and wish to find an online option, we suggest the following:
If you have further questions or comments your liaison librarian will be glad to help.
*This page was inspired by our colleagues at the University of Guelph Library.