A new program launched this semester allows students to check out a textbook at Gelman Library for a selected group of undergraduate, high-enrollment courses that have traditionally expensive textbooks.
The books are placed on course reserve and can be checked out with a GWorld card for use for two hours inside the library.
The Top Textbooks program began as a proposal from the Student Association to “lighten the financial burden of textbooks” and “increase the library’s role as a center for academic resources and support,” said Student Association President Peak Sen Chua. The program is offered in collaboration with GW Libraries.
Currently, the Top Textbooks program stocks one or two copies of required textbooks for nearly three dozen courses, in economics, mathematics, physics, political science, statistics, geography and more. Books are available at the Check Out Desk. After checking out a textbook for the two-hour limit, it must be returned but can then be checked out again after a 15-minute waiting period.
Students who check out a textbook during the two hours before the Check Out Desk closes may keep the book overnight in the library and return it by 9 a.m. the following day. Students can check the availability of certain textbooks online.
Mr. Chua said he hopes that eventually the program will expand to include more undergraduate as well as graduate classes.
“We hope that this program will help students achieve academic success and be one major way in which GW can support students,” Mr. Chua said.
