ASUA is working with the UA Main Library to dedicate portions of the building to textbooks collected from grants or student donations.

Adam Schuman, senate aid for the Associated Students of the University of Arizona, said the most difficult part of the process will be for the library to find the space for a textbook reserve, but library staff have proven helpful and enthusiastic about this plan so far.

ASUA Sens. Jen Dang, Samantha Kerr and Stephen Gerner were all present at a meeting to discuss textbook prices with fellow UA students yesterday.

The senators said that this change is not intended to hurt the UofA Bookstore, but to help find an alternative study source for students who may not be able to afford the selling price of their required textbooks.

Carmen Tirado-Paredes, a reading, language and culture graduate student, said that sometimes instead of purchasing his required texts, he will find them at the library, evaluate the pertinence to the class and then decide whether to purchase the textbook at the bookstore.

This collaboration with the library is still in the early development stages, and ASUA continues to focus much of its attention on lowering textbook prices at the bookstore.

ASUA senators plan to launch an online survey to 3,000 students, asking them about their feelings on current textbook prices and the relevance of their textbooks to classes.

“”We want to delve into student life to see if they are passionate about this issue,”” Gerner said.

Also, ASUA plans on adding questions to teacher-course evaluation sheets distributed to students at the end of every semester. The questions will ask students if the required books were necessary for effective study in the course.

Gerner said the Arizona Board of Regents is looking to set new policies on mandatory deadlines for textbook decisions from professors. He explained that oftentimes, professors are unaware of the soaring prices of textbooks for their students.

Another idea is to require professors to justify new edition changes on textbooks, because many times a few pictures or charts will distinguish between the two, but the price of the newer edition is much higher.

ASUA also wants to work with the Arizona State Legislature in developing new state laws for publishers.

Gerner said he hopes new laws will require textbook publishers to report the actual price of books, rather than the retail price that students see when purchasing textbooks at the bookstore.

“”The whole state is involved in lowering textbooks prices,”” Dang said.