Liz Gabbitas, works at the J. Willard Marriott Library, at the University of Utah, where she focuses on reducing the cost of higher education for the University’s 32,000 students. In addition to the Espresso Book Machine mentioned here, she manages the library’s course reserve service and its collection of textbooks and course materials. In this guest post, she reports on a collaborative effort between the library and a faculty member to create an affordable alternative to a high-cost Arabic textbook.
When a University of Utah professor grew frustrated with the slim textbook offerings available to students of Arabic, she turned to the library for help. The result was the collaborative creation of a new and radically cheaper text — that got much higher ratings from students than the old one had. How did we do it?