Leading and Collaborating in a Complex Space: Developing and Evaluating a Course Materials Program

Librarians at a large public university describe ongoing efforts to develop a strategic, multi-pronged Libraries Course Materials Program to reduce course material costs for students. These efforts include the integration of course materials in the university’s learning management system in addition to offering course materials reviews, consultations, and grant opportunities for instructors. A pilot program in the College of Business provided a path for direct outreach to instructors as well as significant potential student cost savings and revealed challenges related to communication and recruitment. Authors share their approach to program evaluation for understanding and communicating impact and for estimating the program’s return-on investment as well as their plans to test the feasibility of determining and providing the lowest-cost version available of selected course materials at scale, campus-wide.