This past July, the Rollins College bookstore has officially removed textbooks from their shelves. The main reason for this change was that Rollins ended its contract with Follett, which is a bookstore management corporation. Follett is a for-profit company that colleges pay to manage bookstores located on campuses, and in addition to that, sells textbooks, e-books, and global book rentals. Therefore, it had a vested interest in selling books to college students for a high profit margin.
Now, due to the fact Rollins ended the contract with Follett, the college will be moving to a vendor-neutral model, hoping for more affordability for students. The Olin Library has stepped up in their role to assist students by now providing course material listings for classes via a library run platform called Olin Study Stax. This change will allow students as well as faculty to view and build a list of required course materials such as recommended or required texts, media, or other learning tools all in one place. It will seamlessly integrate with Canvas, and because this is an Olin Library run program, the library will offer ‘library purchases’ for required class texts with fewer issues. The goal of the program at Olin is to reduce the overall cost of the courses at Rollins by allowing for more accessible materials.
While an abundance of faculty and students have begun using Olin Study Stax and have found success, Rollins College librarian and archivist Rachel Walton commented that “because it’s a newly debuted campus tool it has not been adopted by all departments and many faculty are still being trained, so campus-wide adoption of Olin Study Stax will be ongoing and likely evolve over time as people get more comfortable and acclimated.” The program also provides various purchase options such as textbook rental services including Chegg, fast shipping options like Amazon, and textbook/e-book vendors like Pearson.
Walton also commented that “As a librarian, I see this new tool as a way we can expand options for low or no-cost course material costs – in fact, this is a long-term goal for the library.” This is a step in a new direction for the college, one that it has not yet taken. Library Dean Derek Malone states, “We have a roadmap for reducing materials costs for students. That roadmap includes Olin Study Stax. When materials are listed in Olin Study Stax, Olin Library faculty and staff are able to review what options we can offer for price reduction, including – reviewing library subscriptions for digital content, purchasing a class set, and offering insight on OER alternatives, all if possible, and in collaboration with faculty.” With the bookstore leaving the picture as the main source of where textbooks are purchased, Olin Library will be more involved in the academic side of students’ lives. The library has come up with a few new ways they can continue helping students succeed academically. The first is through a new collection titled “Textbook Reserves” where students can borrow a copy of their required textbooks in the library for three hours at a time. This will allow for more affordable, sustainable, and easier options to attain required or recommended course materials. Olin also encourages students to donate any leftover and unneeded texts to pay it forward to a future Rollins student who may need it.
By working directly with instructors, three new funded grants have helped faculty reduce or remove the cost of textbooks in their class if interested. These three grants are as follows:
OER Review Grant: Gives a professor support to explore and evaluate free, openly licensed textbooks or other course materials that could replace a traditional textbook. The goal is to help faculty see whether a high-quality, no-cost option exists before making a bigger change to the course.
OER Implementation Grant: Supports professors who are ready to replace a commercial textbook with free, openly licensed materials, either by adopting existing resources, adapting them, or creating new ones. These projects can involve more substantial course redesign, but the result is that students can access required materials at little or no cost.Textbook Affordability Grant: Helps professors reduce what students spend on course materials when a fully open textbook is not the best fit. Faculty can work with the library to identify lower-cost options, such as library-licensed materials, affordable textbooks, or other strategies that bring the overall cost of the course down.
All three of these grants are described on the Olin Library website: https://libguides.rollins.edu/grants/instructors. For questions or interest, faculty is encouraged and welcome to contact Rachel Walton at rwalton@rollins.edu.
Overall, the bookstore will now be renamed the Rollins College Spirit Shop, exclusively selling merchandise, school supplies, and other necessities. In addition, Olin Study Stax has launched and will work for pointing students to library owned, or outside sourced materials. Students are encouraged to stop by, check out the improved spirit shop, say hello to the staff, but most importantly have a great semester!
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