Students Can Check Out Textbooks for Core Classes from Library’s New Collection



Dr. Ellen Safley

Eugene McDermott Library has launched a pilot program that allows students to check out textbooks for required undergraduate core curriculum courses.

The Undergraduate Core Textbook Collection is considered a reference collection, so the textbooks must be used on the second, third and fourth floors of the library. The materials are available at the library’s services desk in the second-floor lobby and can be borrowed for up to two hours at a time. Overdue materials will accrue fines of 10 cents a minute.

“The library is experimenting with the addition of required textbooks to determine if we can provide some support for undergraduate education,” said Dr. Ellen Safley, dean of McDermott Library.

A single copy of each textbook per course is available unless the book is required for multiple classes. Search for these textbooks on the library's website by entering a course's abbreviation, the book's title or the author's name. The materials are not searchable by a professor’s name.

Search for these textbooks on the library’s website by entering a course's abbreviation, the book's title or the author's name.

Online versions of books are not part of the collection. To preserve the integrity of the materials, users will not be allowed to highlight or mark in the books. Students can make photocopies of pages from the books.

The McDermott Library partnered with the UT Dallas Bookstore to get a list of required titles. Examples of available books include “Statistics: Informed Decisions Using Data” for EPPS 2302, “The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson” for PS 1602 and “Simon and Schuster's Guide to Rocks and Minerals” for GEOS 2409. There also is a step-by-step video with more information about the Undergraduate Core Textbook Collection.

“Anything that we can do to get books into students’ hands is good thing,” said Dr. Andrew Blanchard, dean of Undergraduate Education and Mary McDermott Cook Distinguished Chair for Undergraduate Education and Research. “They know that they can get the book in a relatively short period of time and it’s all consolidated, which really makes it easy for students.”

At the end of the semester, library administration will evaluate usage statistics to determine whether the project continues in the spring.

Core Curriculum Objectives

UT Dallas undergraduates must take 42 credit hours of courses across nine categories that meet the following objectives:

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Critical thinking skills: To include creative thinking, innovation, inquiry, and analysis, evaluation and synthesis of information.Communication skills: To include effective development, interpretation and expression of ideas through written, oral and visual communication.Empirical and quantitative skills: To include the manipulation and analysis of numerical data or observable facts resulting in informed conclusions.Teamwork: To include the ability to consider different points of view and to work effectively with others to support a shared purpose or goal.Personal responsibility: To include the ability to connect choices, actions and consequences to ethical decision-making.Social responsibility: To include intercultural competence, knowledge of civic responsibility, and the ability to engage effectively in regional, national and global communities.