FACULTY COURSE MATERIAL ORDERING INFORMATION

ORDERING TEXTBOOKS

Textbooks are chosen and ordered for class at the discretion of the professor.  SLIS does not require that textbooks be used in class if a professor would prefer to teach with course packs or reserve materials.

For Faculty Teaching On Campus (LSC Classes) and at Library of Congress
Send your textbooks orders to the SLIS office at cua-slis@cua.edu. The order will be placed for you at the bookstore.  All textbooks ordered for classes will be available for purchase in the CUA bookstore located in the Pryzbyla Center.

It is best to place your textbook orders six to eight weeks prior to the start of classes.  This is because:

• It will ensure that the books can be ordered, shipped, and on the shelf ready for the students before the class begins. (Some publishers take up to six weeks to ship a book.)
• There will be adequate time to address any concerns that may arise.
• It will allow the bookstore more time to make used books available for students. 

Of course there will be times when this proves impossible.  Nonetheless, textbook orders should be placed as early as possible.

For Faculty Teaching Off Campus (CLSC Classes)
Textbook orders are handled slightly differently at each location.  In each case, the program assistant will be able to assist you in ensuring your textbooks are ordered.  Please consult our Distance Courses pages for this information.

COURSE RESERVES

Materials may be put on reserve in the SLIS library or the Mullen Library.  It is possible to place your personal materials on reserve in the libraries for students' use.  Shorter works and articles may also be placed on electronic reserve, available to the students through the library website.  Electronic reserves may also be delivered directly to the Blackboard system (but not to WebCT).  Please see the library's website for Instructions for Placing Items on Reserve.

COURSE PACKS

A course pack is a packet of materials (usually articles or chapters of books) custom-made for the course.  They are often used in lieu of textbooks.  The CUA bookstore can create the course pack for you.  The process can vary in time from a couple of weeks to more than a month:

• Select all the materials you would like to include in the course pack.  Often, simply submitting bibliographic information is sufficient.  However, if you are able to provide the bookstore with full-text copies of the articles you wish to use, it will expediate the process.
• Submit these materials to the CUA bookstore.  They may be e-mailed (if you have electronic copies of everything), dropped off in person in the lower level of the bookstore in the Pryzbla Center, or mailed to: CUA Bookstore, Cardinal Station, Washington, DC 20064.
• The bookstore then sends your materials to a third-party vendor, XanEdu, which then produces a line-item breakdown of the costs of purchasing the copyrights for the various materials in the course pack.  The costs are passed on to the students when they purchase the course packs in the bookstore.
• At this point, you will have the option of modifying the course pack.  For example, you may wish to remove certain items from the course pack if they are prohibitively expensive for the students.
• Once you have approved the final list of materials to be included, XanEdu will produce the course packs and deliver them to the CUA bookstore.