How to Get Free Textbooks for Summer Classes

On Wednesday, May 20th, 2020, Principal Davis officially announced in an email that Middle College High School will not be able to provide students textbooks for their summer courses.

“Normally, if we have college books that are turned in at the end of the 2nd semester, we have been able to check those texts out to students to use for Summer School. This has always been on a first come, first serve basis,” Principal Davis stated.

However, because of the current coronavirus pandemic, MCHS cannot provide students their summer textbooks like they usually do due to safety-related reasons. With how infectious the virus is, the school cannot risk spreading it, since some of the used books are possibly contaminated.

But that doesn’t mean you have to spend hundreds of dollars to obtain your textbooks. There are still many other opportunities for MCHS students to save money!

For one, the San Joaquin Delta College Library is providing online digital access to most of their college textbooks in reserve. While they do not guarantee that all textbooks will be available, this service is still exceptionally useful. Since they are a part of Delta College, they have more textbooks available specific to your classes compared to other resources. All you need to do is fill out an eReserves Request Form available on the library update announcement section. 

Furthermore, RedShelf, VitalSource, and Cengage—services that SJDC commonly uses for coursework—are all offering temporary free online textbook access through May 25th, 2020. You can access up to seven textbooks through RedShelf and VitalSource, and unlimited textbooks through Cengage. All you need to do is sign up with your Delta College email. (Additional information can be found on the library page of the SJDC website.)

Aside from those resources, you can also legally download college books from these nonprofits and these public domain websites:

• OpenStax - A nonprofit that provides openly-licensed textbooks.

• Open Textbook Library - A website supported by the Center for Open Education and the Open Textbook Network—and driven to provide free textbooks legally.  

• Project Gutenberg - Known as the oldest digital library, this archive provides students with thousands of public domain books. (Tip: If you take Professor MacDonald for English 1B, most of the books he requires you to read are free here.) 

If you don’t want to go through those processes, an alternative solution can simply be to drop and replace your current courses with classes that don’t require textbooks. Here are some classes and professors that don’t use a textbook according to MyDelta and the SJDC Bookstore:

• Music 1 with Baer 

• Communication Studies 1A with Staff, Farias, Cochran, Amundsen, and possibly more

• Political Science 1 with Baxter

Textbook requirements also vary from class to class and professor to professor, so if you’re unsure whether your course requires textbooks or not, there is one way you can check:

1.) Click on the blue text under the class section.

2.) Go to the “Textbook/Other Information” tab and click on the “Purchase Textbook” button.

3.) The button would then redirect you to the Delta College Bookstore website, which lists all of the materials required for that specific course. 

All in all, there are many possible ways for you to avoid financial stress this summer. And if you’re still struggling in any aspect of your summer college courses, don’t forget that you can always reach out to other students for help!