University Libraries

By Katy Kelly, Ryan Reed and Adam Schwartz

We often take for granted what comes to us easily or free of charge. Inspired by public libraries that track how much patrons save by checking out books, movies and other resources, we set out to calculate a comparable example in our university setting.

Ryan and Adam used five randomly selected bibliographies from actual (but anonymous) student projects in political science and communication courses during the 2017-18 academic year. By searching for the article titles off campus using Google, they were able to tally up the cost each student would have paid for each article, if students would have hit the publishers’ paywalls instead of the full text provided by the library.

So how much does the library save students?

Ryan’s total for the communication bibliographies was $269: “That’s over a year and a half worth of Premium Netflix (19 months) or five and a half daily admission tickets to Cedar Point, or you could buy a ticket in the upper bowl to see Ohio State beat Michigan again this fall.”

Adam calculated that the political science resources would total $580.40 out of a student’s pocket. “That's 145.46 Big Macs or one and a half Playstation 4s. Or, at 25 cents per roll, thats 2,321 rolls of toilet paper.”

The samples included five student bibliographies in each class, which usually is around 20 to 25 students at UD. Using these totals, the average cost of a resource cited by a student is $25.74, and the bibliographies sampled had an average of four citations, meaning we can estimate that the average student would need a $100 budget to write a paper required for class.

Thankfully, print and electronic resources provided by University of Dayton Libraries, OhioLINK and interlibrary loan ensure students do not see this out of pocket cost.

With combined shared resources, Roesch Library can deliver the best materials to help people succeed personally, professionally, and academically. The University Libraries are able to stretch tuition dollars to negotiate the best prices for resources to serve the campus community. So enjoy those Big Macs or the tickets to Cedar Point instead of buying articles you’ll use once.

Are you hitting a paywall? Ask us, and we can help you locate or request the full text of a resource.

— Katy Kelly, is an associate professor and coordinator of marketing and engagement; Ryan Reed is a junior history major and Roesch Library Knowledge Hub student employee; Adam Schwartz is a 2018 graduate of the University of Dayton and a Knowledge Hub employee.