College Physics 2e by 
OpenIntro Statistics by 
Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces by Courses using OERs in lieu of traditional textbooks: 18
Courses with "No Textbooks": 64%
Items adopted: 372
Print course adoptions newly purchased for reserve: 92
Ebook course adoptions newly purchased: 67
Most expensive book adopted at Bowdoin (last 5 years): $420
Most expensive package (last 5 years): $438
Most expensive book Spring '24: $375
Most expensive course Spring '24: $375
Textbooks are grouped with other indirect costs like toiletries, laundry, and travel in the Cost of Attendance . In the context of financial aid packages at Bowdoin, these expenses are generally paid by the student and/or their family as part of their expected contribution. Students are expected to arrive on campus with a plan to pay for indirect expenses. This plan may include receiving money from family for school expenses, working a summer job, working on campus, or requesting additional assistance.
The deadline is based on federal law: students have the right to know at the time of registration how much the course materials for a course will cost. Registration at Bowdoin occurs halfway through the previous semester--in October for Spring, and March for Fall.
Bowdoin contracts with eCampus, which is an online retailer of new, used, and electronic textbooks for sale or rent. Given this arrangement, the College does not stock textbooks on campus. eCampus integrates with Bowdoin's class schedule and course registration system to provide a virtual storefront for course materials sales. Students have the opportunity to order their course materials from eCampus at bowdoin.ecampus.com, and their purchases are shipped directly to them.
However, students access materials in multiple ways. Some of them purchase from other vendors such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or eBay. Others depend on the library's physical reserve copies of course materials or unlimited access ebooks. And some students use interlibrary loan to borrow books from other institutions, or share books with their peers.
Course adoption is part of the course design cycle. During the course design process, instructors decide what materials students will need to be successful in their courses. Some of the materials are articles and book chapters, which can be scanned and posted to Canvas. Some are safety equipment, like lab goggles or art supplies. And some are books that students may need to purchase. Course adoption is the act of deciding what books students need to purchase for a course and making that information available on the public course schedule. Faculty at Bowdoin are responsible for choosing books and submitting those choices internally through College-managed workflows at least a week before registration begins. The College leverages strong collaborative relationships among the Library, Registrar's Office, IT, and eCampus to display that information to students in compliance with federal law.
The course adoption cycle at Bowdoin:
1. Faculty have the opportunity when filling out the Mini-Cow to indicate whether they will use the same books as before, are considering new books, or will not need students to purchase any books or materials.
2. Faculty specify which books they will ask students to purchase using the Course Adoptions Form, which is due before Round 1 Registration.
3. The course adoption information is uploaded to the eCampus platform, which shares the information with Polaris and makes the books and their prices visible to students while they are shopping for classes and registering. This disclosure at the time of registration is required by federal law.
4. The library purchases a copy of all materials produced in physical format*, and also purchases ebook licenses when available. These items are purchased, catalogued, and processed in Collections Management as part of the library's inventory.
5. The library's Access Services department creates a course listing for each course/instructor/section, gathers the adopted books already in the collection and the new purchases, and places them on reserve. Access Services also places on reserve additional items requested by faculty for their courses.
6. The virtual bookstore opens about 4 weeks before the start of the semester, giving students the opportunity to purchase books from eCampus and have them shipped directly to their Smith Union mailbox.
7. Students arrive on campus, attend the first days of class, and decide to purchase or access course materials based on information from the syllabus (such as the volume of assigned reading for a particular resource), their personal financial situation, their reading preferences, and their accessibility needs.
*there are a few exceptions, generally caused by publisher restrictions
