The UCLA Library launched its Affordable Course
Materials Initiative in 2013 to encourage faculty to use online content that can
be freely accessed. That pilot will become an official program this fall.
Instructors can apply for up to $2,500 in grant money
to help find resources and adjust syllabi and assignments. Since the pilot
started, the library has awarded $27,500 to 23 instructors, saving students an
estimated $160,000, according to a report in the Daily Bruin student newspaper.
The program started as collaboration between the
library, the Undergraduate Students Association Council, and the UCLA Store to
find databases of licenses the library already owned. Identifying the databases
allowed the bookstore to produce coursepacks of materials the library had
rights to without paying additional permission fees.
“That’s how we started on this path of both hearing
what the problem was from the students and also seeing some ways that the
different moving parts of UCLA, if worked together, could improve this
situation more than any of us could independently,” said Sharon Farb, associate
university librarian.
