Overall Rating Silver
Overall Score 56.35
Liaison Amy Kadrie
Submission Date Dec. 15, 2021

STARS v2.2

University of Rochester
IN-41: Textbook Affordability

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.50 / 0.50 Cameron Schauf
Director
Dining Services
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Does the institution host a peer-to-peer textbook exchange program, textbook lending library, or alternate textbook project?:
Yes

A brief description of the textbook exchange program, textbook lending library, or alternate textbook project:
University Libraries offer Course Reserve services in which professors who place a request can have their course texts available for two-hour loan in our libraries. The libraries also try to locate e-copies of these books that we can make available for students to use through the library.

Does the institution provide incentives for academic staff that explicitly encourage the authorship, peer review, and/or adoption of open access textbooks?:
Yes

A brief description of the incentives to encourage the authorship, peer review, and/or adoption of open access textbooks:
The River Campus Libraries (RCL)-led Access to Course Textbooks (ACT) Commitment seeks to create a more student-friendly environment. Ultimately, the course material is decided by faculty members. ACT is an effort to inform and support those choices by raising awareness of the limitations of using commercially published textbooks and, through University partnerships, provide students with more accessible alternatives. The current lack of accessible textbook alternatives for Rochester students is not a new issue, but one that’s been exacerbated by the pandemic. ACT is already addressing this by shining a light on existing open educational resources.

If yes to either of the above, provide:

Website URL where information about the textbook affordability incentives is available:

Optional Fields

Additional documentation to support the submission:
---

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
Additionally, there is a push for open access on campus, largely led by the libraries.

https://www.library.rochester.edu/services/open
https://libguides.lib.rochester.edu/openscholarship

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.