In an attempt to ease the financial pressures of attending LSU, LSU Libraries is engaging in a pilot program to make roughly 250 print textbooks available free of charge to LSU students. The majority of the textbooks in this program were paid for through LSU Libraries funds. The remainder of the titles were purchased as a result of funds generously provided by the LSU Student Government, via a Student Senate Finance Bill.

The Libraries have these textbooks’ course numbers, instructors, titles, and authors available in a list on the Libraries web site at https://lib.lsu.edu/textbooks/. These books are kept on reserve at the Access Services desk on Middleton Library’s second floor. Students can review the list for their classes, and bring the title or the course number to the Access Services desk. Students may check out each book for two hours using their LSU ID card.

Beyond the print textbooks that are part of this new project, LSU Libraries has been engaged for several years in purchasing textbooks that are available in digital/online format.  The purchase of these textbooks depends on their being available in online format without any restrictions on the number of people who can access them.  This “unlimited access” feature makes these books ideal for use as textbooks by LSU students.  The list of these online textbooks changes every semester, based on professors’ required readings and requests, and is available on the LSU Libraries website:  https://www.lib.lsu.edu/ebooks. Students should review both lists before committing to purchase a course textbook.

Questions about the LSU Libraries free textbook programs, can be directed to the Access Services Department at (225) 578-2058 or libcirc@lsu.edu.