This article suggests that a large number of students are opting not to buy assign texts due to their high costs. For years now I have increasingly moved to the side of the students, given the cynical way textbook companies treat both faculty and students in their drive for profits.
http://chronicle.com/article/7-in-10-Students-Have-Skipped/128785/
This is a scary statistic. I do not take the textbook lightly and students are responsible for any content that is in the book (that may not be covered in class). We have begun to inform the students of the e-book alternative. I just priced the Maternal-Child Nursing Care book (this book is for an 8-hour credit course). The online new book price is $129, the e-book alternative (which is the exact same text) is $59. I do not know how this will effect our book store, but it is an alternative for those students needing to watch thier budget!
Alissa, I tend to do the same thing. I had a non-traditional student in an MBA class a couple of years ago who said his son at Georgia Tech had not physical books, they were all on his Kindle.
The Library is always here for professors if they want to put their textbooks on reserve. If you have an extra copy of your textbook, consider bringing it to the circulation desk and we will make sure it is on reserve for your students to use. Also, if there are departmental textbooks that are used in a number of courses, the Library will put those on reserve per department. Textbooks are very expensive and students do not always have the money to purchase them. Sometimes, student’s loan money is not deposited in their account in time to purchase textbooks before classes start and they are at a disadvantage for the first couple of weeks of the semester.