Iowa State University
OP-T2-40: Materials Online

Iowa State publishes its course catalogs online through the university website. This includes a searchable index of courses by name, college, or department. The last printed catalog was published in March 2009 (2009-2011 catalog). The current catalog as well as links to previous catalogs are available at http://catalog.iastate.edu. Viewers can print one page or the entire catalog as needed. In the past, approximately 50-60,000 printed catalogs were produced. The online catalog replaced a typical order of 35,000 printed catalogs. Course schedules are also made available to students online through an internal website. Starting back as early as the mid-1980s with CYNET, course listings were available online to students. At that time, as many as 35,000 printed Schedule of Classes booklets were produced and distributed to students. Later, the web site http://classes.iastate.edu/ provided class schedules for multiple terms as well as search capabilities for specific course characteristics (half-term courses, 3 credit courses, etc.). With the development of online alternatives, publication of the Schedule of Classes was reduced consistently until 2001, when copies were provided to departments only (approximately 200). Today, departments download the Schedule of Classes via pdf from the Office of the Registrar web site. Finally, Iowa State has published its directory of students, faculty, and staff online through a searchable website since the mid-1990s. A printed directory was also available until 2009. The online directory, http://info.iastate.edu/, is available on the university’s homepage, and is publicly accessible. It replaces approximately 25,000 printed directories.