The Free Textbook Loan Program is a student-led initiative of QPIRG-McGill Alternative Library. Students donate their textbooks to QPIRG-McGill in return for a modest compensation. Every semester, we lend these books out free of charge to students upon request, with extended borrowing periods. We aim to address the lack of access to physical textbooks and lessen the financial burden of higher education. Our program is independent of the Course Reserves collection of McGill Library and partly funded by the Arts Undergraduate Society through the Arts Undergraduate Improvement Fund.

McGill students lack affordable access to print textbooks. The current alternatives to purchasing expensive textbooks are: the Open Educational Resources (OER) initiative of the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) (for general information, please see the LibGuide on OERs at McGill); the Course Reserves collection and Course Readings service of McGill Library; and scarce student-led initiatives (i.e., in departmental student associations, or on online student-administered forums) that distribute free PDF copies of textbooks. These resources are not always visible or present some pragmatic challenges to students. For example, at the McGill Library, students can only check out textbooks on Course Reserves for a short loaning period, typically ranging from 3 hours to 2 days, so they would either rush photocopying (which takes a lot of time that many students can’t afford in light of their other priorities) or cramping the materials before exams if they don’t own a print copy at home. Plus, there is a limit on how many students can access the Course Reserves at any given time and there are copyright issues with for-profit publishers that prevent libraries from purchasing digital versions of textbooks, two major issues already observed by McGill Library regarding the general inaccessibility of textbooks in higher education. Moreover, for low-income students who have to resort to the Course Reserves to have access to the textbooks, they would ideally want the same leisure as students who can afford the textbooks: to carry with them throughout the course, not just for a day or two. Therefore, our Free Textbook Loan Program will fill in this huge gap.

Additionally, for students who manage to afford textbooks, the books are often used once for a particular course and then either resold to future students of that course or neglected, adding to the monopolistic, for-profit system of academic publishing where required textbooks are gatekept by publishing houses at insufferable prices. Our program is thus a circular economy model where former students donate their textbooks to us in return for a modest compensation, which would substantially reduce textbook waste at the end of the academic year. These books will then be loaned free of charge to students in need in following semesters, advancing sustainability on campus.

In sum, the Free Textbook Loan Program initiated and administered by QPIRG-McGill Alternative Library is born out of this context as a means to enhance students’ financial wellbeing and lessen the burden of higher education for low-income students at McGill.

1. Project goals
   • Promote universal access to print textbooks and other course materials.
   • Enhance students’ financial wellbeing and lessen the burden of higher education.
   • Implement a circular economy model with a bottom-up approach in a university setting.
   • Provide a sustainable solution to the practical challenges that McGill Library faces.
   • Encourage altruism on campus and create a healthy student community.
   • Contribute to both social and environmental justice by actively counteracting educational inequity and reducing waste.
   • Promote the community outread and portfolio of QPIRG-McGill on campus.
2. Specific objectives
   • Provide McGill students with free access to required physical textbooks for an extended loan period.
   • Provide McGill students with alternative options to purchasing expensive textbooks.
   • Liaise with professors and/or administrative staff to incorporate the Program into as many course syllabi as possible.
   • Provide a flexible annual plan for the sustenance of the Program beyond the term of the incumbent stakeholders.
   • Encourage the involvement of McGill students in the Program through volunteering and/or paid work where sufficient funds are available.