Textbooks
This textbook guide provides information for students and faculty to help them explore available textbook options and make informed choices about accessing and using course materials.
The Changing Context for Textbooks
A textbook is a book designed for use in an instructional setting that contains basic information about a subject to help students learn about that subject. Over the past few years, textbook publishing companies have shifted the textbook market away from print books and towards digital content that ranges from simple e-textbooks to complete learning platforms.
The course material landscape, particularly textbook publishing, is experiencing unprecedented and rapid change. Previously university textbooks were in print format and generally purchased through the campus store, with some used options available via secondary markets. Today, course materials and textbook options can encompass digital and print formats and can include software and technological enhancements like virtual labs, quizzes, and learning activities. They can be open (cost-free), paywalled, subscription-based sources, or single-use rentals. At some universities, mandatory textbook rentals are built into tuition fees.
Affordability
Textbook affordability is a significant issue for post-secondary students. High costs can have negative impacts on learning outcomes, student debt, and academic success. Research has shown that rising textbook costs impact many students’ ability to purchase learning materials and participate fully in their courses, and can influence decisions about course selection and course withdrawal.
Access
Textbooks are also becoming increasingly unavailable for libraries to acquire and lend to students. Many publishers make textbooks available as individual rentals on digital platforms (like VitalSource) that either do not allow libraries to purchase multi-user licenses, or make them prohibitively expensive. The access restrictions on these platforms often also prevent individual students from sharing, re-selling, or re-using their textbooks. Commercial e-text platforms can also create problematic privacy concerns for faculty and students.
Impact of Publishing Changes
How has this shift in textbook publishing impacted MRU students and faculty?
The Library is committed to making copies of required textbooks available to students who are unable to purchase their own, when possible, by purchasing required course textbooks each semester and putting them on course reserve.
- Many academic and educational publishers do not allow the Library to purchase digital copies of their publications, and a growing number are no longer publishing print versions of their textbooks.
- E-rental licenses that are made available to libraries are priced astronomically and are unattainable given most academic libraries’ collection budgets.
- In recent semesters, an average of about 20% of all required course textbooks for sale at the Campus Store are unavailable for the library to purchase in any format.
- Pearson
- Cengage
- Kendall Hunt
- Houghton
- Oxford University Press Canada (Textbook Division)
- Cambridge University Press (Textbook Division)
- Elsevier imprints (especially in health science) such as:
- Elsevier Health Science (Textbook Division)
- Mosby
- Saunders
- Thieme
- MacMillan Higher Education
- Wiley-Blackwell (Textbook Division)
Some publishers (e.g. McGraw-Hill) make their e-textbooks available only via large subscription packages, which can be very expensive and cost-prohibitive.
Using data from the Campus Store, we tracked how many required course texts are unavailable for the Library to purchase. 23% of all required course texts in Fall 2024, and 18% in Winter 2025, were only available for sale or rent in digital format directly to individual students. (This does not include textbooks that instructors did not order through the Campus Store; actual numbers are likely higher.)