Dear Faculty,
As we prepare for the upcoming spring semester, our team has been closely following the effects the pandemic is having on the book industry. A lumber shortage combined with a reduced workforce have created a paper shortage. Publishers have informed us that supply chain issues have caused a major slowdown in book production. Supply chain problems have touched almost every aspect of the industry including: production, storage, and delivery.
Due to the external issues with paper shortages and publisher delays, we strongly encourage faculty and departments to submit book adoptions to the University Bookstore as soon as possible. This will allow extra lead time and take advantage of current stock availability as we know that reprints will be challenging during this time.
There are two ways to submit your book adoptions.
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Visit the Adoptions and Insights Portal (AIP), which is in BengalWeb under the Faculty Tools within the Academic page .
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Email your course information including: course abbreviation, course number, course section, and the ISBNs with the title(s) to [email protected].
This is also a great opportunity to switch to an open educational resource (OER) or free textbook for your course. There are many high-quality open textbooks available, and more are coming out all the time. If you have not checked out the ISU University Libraries Open Educational Resources Quick Start guide, that is a great place to learn more and start your OER search. Adopting OER has been shown to benefit financially vulnerable students and decrease course drop/fail/withdrawal rates, and switching to OER can give you more instructional flexibility. Note: if you plan to use an OER, you should still submit your choice via the methods above.
If you have any questions or concerns about book adoptions or how to use AIP, please contact David Ashby at [email protected] or (208) 282-3230.
Thank you for your continued support and understanding as we navigate these global supply chain and labor challenges.
––University Bookstore Team
