Navigating Resources at Weber State University Library

Weber State University Library is dedicated to providing an enriching educational experience through access to high-quality, engaging, and relevant course materials at no cost to students, especially in General Education and key required courses. Expanded access to affordable course materials means that every WSU student can pursue their ambitions and curiosities, without regard to the cost of those materials. This commitment aligns with WSU’s Strategic Plan goals in the areas of Retention and Completion, Personal Connections and Academic Excellence, and Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. This article provides a detailed overview of the resources and initiatives available to students and faculty at Weber State University (WSU) Library.

Affordable Course Materials: A Vision for Educational Equity

The library envisions an educational experience at Weber State University that includes access to high quality, engaging, and relevant course materials at no cost to students. The library supports WSU’s Strategic Plan goals in the areas of Retention and Completion, Personal Connections and Academic Excellence, and Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.

Key Services and Initiatives

The Stewart Library offers a variety of services and initiatives designed to make course materials more accessible and affordable. These include:

Course Reserve: Placing materials on reserve provides WSU students an alternative means of accessing course materials. Print materials can be made available for checkout at our library locations and digital content from library subscriptions and databases can be posted directly in Canvas using Library eReserve.
Open Educational Resources: Open Educational Resources (OER) are learning materials with an open license that allows you to freely share and edit materials.
Syllabus Review: Library staff can help identify affordable alternatives such as OER and library eBooks that match your course learning objectives. This service is also available for new courses that may not yet have a syllabus. Submit your syllabus with our Syllabus Review Form.
Wildcat Store: The Wildcat Store is committed to finding the most affordable course materials by offering an array of options, including Day One Access, a price comparison tool for students, textbook rentals, digital, loose-leaf books, and a large supply of used textbooks.

Accessing Books

The Stewart Library provides multiple avenues for accessing books, both physical and digital:

Library Books: Library books can be found using OneSearch or the library’s Print Collection. All books are checked out at the User Services desk, on the first floor.
WSU Course Textbooks: The Stewart Library contains many required curriculum textbooks for general courses in our Course Reserve catalog. Browse textbooks by course.
eBooks: Please note eBooks are regularly added and removed by our e-resource vendors from subscription-based collections.

eBook Collections

The library subscribes to several eBook collections, offering a wide range of titles:

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Ebsco eBook Collection: Provides full-text access to over 150,000 eBooks from over 60 publishers, including Springer, Taylor & Francis, and Wiley Interscience. Our Ebsco eBook collection covers many subject areas and topics, including scholarly content. While online, users can search, cite, browse, and read the full text of the eBooks.
O’Reilly Learning Platform: Offers a collection of over 30,000 titles from top publishers like Microsoft, Adobe, Apple, IBM, and O'Reilly. You'll find everything from business, career development, design, hardware, math, science, engineering, security, software development, system administration, and more. View the start-up guide for this resource.
Cambridge Companions Complete Collection: Cambridge Companions are a series of authoritative guides written by leading experts. These guides offer lively and accessible introductions to writers, artists, philosophers, topics, and periods.

Finding eBooks

Browse all eBook databases
Find eBooks by Citation: When you only have a few details about an article, you can use a citation finder to locate eBooks. Citation Linker.

Free eBook Sites

The library also provides links to free eBook sites:

American Mathematical Society (AMS): The AMS offers access to downloadable books on algebra, topology, number theory, mathematical physics, logic, analysis, and more. Visit site.
Bartleby.com: This site contains a collection of reference books, including older editions of classic works. Works of fiction and poetry in the public domain are also available. Visit site.
Europeana: Europeana is a collective online library created for European libraries. Visit site.
Gallica: This online library is a project of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Download, edit and distribute them at no cost. Visit site.
Perseus Digital Library: This collection provides access to ancient Latin and Greek language texts. English translations are available for most titles. Visit site.
Project Gutenberg: Project Gutenberg is a vast online collection of public domain books, offering downloads in EPUB, PDF, and text formats. Visit site.
UC Press E-Books Collection: Contains books from academic presses, covering topics like art, science, history, religion, and fictional works. Some titles are restricted to UC affiliates. Visit site.

Accessing Materials from Other Libraries

Interlibrary Loan: If the Stewart Library doesn’t have the book you need, we can borrow it from another library for you. This free service is called Interlibrary Loan. The book usually arrives within 7-10 business days. Request a book.
Utah Academic Library Consortium (UALC): WSU students, staff, and faculty can borrow materials from other Utah academic libraries through the Utah Academic Library Consortium.

Course Reserve Materials

The WSU Library has many required and recommended textbooks being used in classes. This can include more than just textbooks, such as solution manuals, articles, book chapters, films, anatomical models, or practice tests. These materials are kept on Course Reserve.

Course Reserve materials are located behind the Service Desk both at the Stewart Library (LI 1st Floor) and at the Davis Library (D2 2nd Floor).

Most items are available for a borrowing period of 3 days.

Materials with a borrowing period of 2 or 5 hours must stay in the library.

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The link below can be used to search for your textbook directly in our catalog and to view all materials available in a course.

Open Educational Resources (OER)

Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that you may freely use and reuse at no cost, and without needing to ask permission. Unlike copyrighted resources, OER have been authored or created by an individual or organization that chooses to retain few, if any, ownership rights.

In some cases, you can download a resource and share it with colleagues and students. In other cases, you may be able to download a resource, edit it, and then repost it as a remixed work. How do you know your options? OERs often have a Creative Commons license or other permissions to let you know how the material may be used, reused, adapted, and shared. (source: OER Commons)

Benefits of OER

The benefits of OER impact users at all stages whether you are a creator, instructor, or learner.

Benefits to Students

Most OER are free to access and share, reducing textbook costs to students. Since OER initiatives at WSU began in 2020 there has been an estimated $8,235,530 in cost savings to 65,763 students (as of Spring 2026).
OER tailored to a course can provide higher levels of engagement and comprehension.
The open nature of OER can be incorporated into assignments, allowing students to publish and share their creations with the world.
OER are often available digitally with fewer restrictions, meaning students retain access to materials after graduation.

Benefits to Instructors

OER provides freedom in developing your course and your materials:
- Combine and organize sections from multiple open resources into a single resource.
- Update open resources with new content or readings to keep your content current.
- Create open content to match nuances of your subject and teaching style.

Learning More About OER

The Course Materials Affordability Award recognizes the efforts of instructors at Weber State University who utilize affordable course materials, such as Open Educational Resources (OER) or library resources, in their courses. Nominations open at the start of each Spring semester and recipients are recognized during the annual Thrive Symposium. Visit our Affordability Award page for information about the nomination process and past recipients.
The library offers a short, self-paced course about OER, available to WSU faculty, adjuncts, and staff. This 5-unit course covers OER overview, licensing and copyright, searching strategies, adapting and creating resources, and Open Educational Practices (OEP). Register for the course in Learn Weber.
OER Grants at WSU are available to faculty, adjunct, and staff providing an opportunity to revise their course to utilize OER. Applications open in October and will be selected before the end of each fall semester. Visit our OER Grants page to learn more about grant applications and past grant projects.
Our Open Educational Resources LibGuide provides a broad overview of OER and open licenses and curates a list of OER resources and repositories, including Open Images, which can be filtered by subject.
If you are using an OER or library ebook we ask that you submit your resource to the bookstore for textbook adoptions by March 1 (summer and fall) and October 1 (spring). Submitting your resource on time helps the university meet reporting requirements and track use impact on campus.
Use this short tutorial to learn the differences in submitting OER to the bookstore. If you would like assistance, please fill out our Syllabus Review form. We will search for and provide you with a list of comparable resources among OER repositories and library eBooks that align with current course materials and course learning outcomes.

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