Q. COVID-19: Can I borrow textbooks from the library?

The Healey Library building is currently closed until further notice. Thus, at this time, physical library materials are not available to library users, including textbooks and other physical materials on reserve. Physical interlibrary loan book borrowing is currently unavailable as well. 

Free e-textbooks

Some e-book vendors are offering free and/or open e-textbooks to students. VitalSource is offering some of its e-textbooks at no cost to students and faculty through May 25, 2020. Users can click on the “Bookshelf” link in the top-right corner, create an account using their UMass Boston email address, browse available free textbooks, and add selected titles to their online bookshelves. (Be sure not to search or access via the “Store” link to avoid charges.)

• Users should log in, access their Bookshelf, then click on “Explore” to search titles that are available for free.
• Users are limited to 7 free VitalSource titles. Once a title is borrowed, it cannot be returned and replaced, so students and faculty should search for all of their needed titles before deciding which ones to check out.
• Heavily circulated course reserves titles available at no cost in VitalSource include:
  • Biological Science (Freeman)
  • Calculus: Early Transcendentals (Stewart)
  • Concepts of Genetics (Klug)
  • Intermediate Algebra (Miller)
  • Managerial Decision Modeling (Balakrishnan)
  • Olds’ Maternal-Newborn Nursing and Women’s Health Across the Lifespan (Davidson)
  • Physical Examination and Health Assessment (Jarvis)
  • Physics: Principles with Applications (Giancoli)
  • Single-Variable Calculus (Stewart)

VitalSource offers many additional free textbooks that may be supplementary or complementary for faculty teaching needs – check them out!

The library does not usually purchase textbooks. Some faculty members put personal copies of textbooks on reserve. You can search Course Reserves to see if your textbooks are "on reserve".

Some textbooks (if unavailable at Healey Library) may be borrowed from other libraries. You can make a request through InterLibrary Loan or UMass Boston WorldCat, however most libraries will not lend recent editions of textbooks.