Help Our Students Directly Combat Rising Costs!

Textbooks cost students hundreds of dollars each semester. Depending on their major, students may pay as much as $300, $700, and sometimes even $1,000 for required textbooks.

In 2015, the Libraries took a bold step to address the problem. 

Thanks to gifts from donors to the Textbook Reserve Fund, the Libraries were able to create the “Top Textbooks Program” and acquire the top textbooks for the 50 most popular courses at UMD and make them available for check out from the library.

The program today is as popular as ever, saving our students hundreds of thousands of dollars and freeing them from financial stress that places a real burden on their university careers. 

Top Textbooks now covers 150 courses and we have just expanded into STEM subjects with 25 new textbooks being available for loan through the program this fall. This semester alone, over 500 students have checked out more than 1,500 Top Textbooks–saving them $200 per textbook.

But there is so much more we would like to do.

With your support we would like to grow the program to support over 160 courses and continue to target more high-cost science disciplines. 

Make your gift today!

Gifts in support of the University of Maryland are accepted and managed by the University of Maryland College Park Foundation, Inc., an affiliated 501(c)(3) organization authorized by the Board of Regents.   Contributions to the University of Maryland are tax deductible as allowed by law.   Please see your tax advisor for details.