The adoption deadline for all the terms are-

Summer: March 15th

Fall: April 15th

Winter: October 15th

Spring: October 15th

HEOA legislation requires titles, ISBNs, and retail pricing of all course materials to be published for students’ review prior to course registration. As soon as you receive your teaching assignment for the upcoming semester/term, please send your course material requests to the ISU Book Store. The sooner we recieve your course material requests the Iowa State Book Store course materials team can source cost effective optionals, ensure stock levels, and eliminate potentical technical issues.

The Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 (HEOA) is federal legislation requiring titles, ISBNs, and retail pricing of all required and recommended course materials to be published for students’ review prior to course registration. To comply with this requirement, the Office of the Registrar, Information Technology, and the Iowa State University Book Store have developed systems to provide this information to students via the Schedule of Classes and their custom book list.

Faculty need to submit the course material requirements to their designated Department Academic Coordinator by the adoption deadline. Faculty can also input their course material requests through Verba Collect. Please include courses with no textbook requirements or courses using library materials.

If you are unsure of your department contact, view the list above. If you need assistance with Verba Collect, contact Emma Peterson.

Course materials are defined as textbooks/books, manuals, access codes, eBooks, courseware, programs, coursepackets, and supplies (design, lab, technology, etc.). And, anything else that is required for your students to obtain for class. This also includes any library materials that are used in the course, including Open Educational Resources and Course Reserves.

When you are choosing course materials there are a few status that let students know how the material will be used. These definitations are based on who a student is meant to interpret their materials.

Required/Required 2nd half semester: This material is needed for the course. Students recieve graded homework and/or readings from the material. Without the material that student would struggle to be successful in the course.

Optional:This is a supplement material that students are not required to used to pass the course. This is a material that can make helpful to students to better understand concepts but the the content is not important for homework or exams.

Go to Class First: This is for materials that students need to go to class first to recieve more information about how to access the material. These are useally assigned to library materials or materials not accessed from the ISU Book Store.

Alternate Choice: This is used to indicate that students can use this material instead of a different one. This is useally used for supplies like safety glasses vs safety goggles.

Yes! The ISU Book Store works together with the University Library to promote affordable course materials. The bookstore shares all the library resources requested with the University Library. This information helps us promote the importance of free and low-cost course materials and keep the cost affordable for students.

We recognize that there are a few situations where it may not be possible to have course materials information available by course registration: the instructor has not yet been assigned for a course, the course and/or textbook is new and still under development. For these situations, the HEOA legislation requires that textbook information be listed as “To Be Determined” until such time as the information is available.

The ISU Book Store will continue to update the system with new information for courses after the initial deadline to provide students with the most accurate and up-to-date information possible. As soon as you receive your teaching assignment for the upcoming semester/term, please send your course material requests to the ISU Book Store. If you do not send in your course material requests in a before the start of the term they may not be included in course materials programs like Immediate Access ONE and Immedaite Access for graduate courses.

For special course materials, arrangements, or negotiations with publishers, please contact the ISU Book Store to facilitate these transactions. Contracts with publishing companies and vendors (i.e., adaptive learning content, e-books) must be established through the Procurement Services to protect student information and ISU. For digital content adoptions, please see the ISU Digital Content Guidelines. Selling or facilitating course material transactions in the classroom or direct through a third-party provider is not allowed.

Yes! Many studio and lab classes do not have textbook course materials associated with their course but still require students to purchase specific materials for their classes. Art, office, or lab supply requests can be submitted with book adoptions or if no textbook is required for the course.

Visit Supply Lists page for more information.

Coursepackets are to be turned in to the ISU Book Store for production. A full coursepacket service is available on-campus through ISU Printing Services and ISU Book Store including copyright clearance, complimentary desk copies, and on-demand printing at the Innovation Center. Coursepackets will be available for students to purchase in the ISU Book Store along with all other course materials.

Visit Coursepackets page.

You can request a desk/exam copy of a material you plan to adopt or want to learn about before adopting. Insturstors who adopt a required digital material will automatically receive a free access to the material in Canvas. There are four options for requesting desk copies-

1. You can request an eBook version through this site- VitalSource Bookshelf. Please create your account using your Iowa State email. After you create an account and request the book you want to sample it can take a 2-3 business days for the eBook to be added to your Bookshelf account. 2. You can request a print copy from one of our publisher representatives. We have specific representatives for the following publishers- McGraw-Hill, Pearson, Cengage, Wiley, ZyBooks, Macmillan, W.W. Norton, Routledge/Taylor & Francis, Sage, Elsevier, Cambridge, and Oxford. If you need to contact information for a publisher represetative please email Emma Peterson.
3.You can request a desk/exam copy directly from the publisher's website. If it not easily found you can search "{Insert publisher} desk copy".
4.If you have tried all of these options or you want print copy, the ISU Book Store can purchase a copy for you. This is not a free option like the 1-3, however you can used a worktag or P-card to purchase the material.

If you have any questions please contact Emma Peterson.

Digital textbooks and courseware are delivered through Canvas. Print books will be available for students to pick-up at the Iowa State University Book Store. Open Educational Resources (OER) and Course Reserves are distributed by the University Library. To learn more, visit IA ONE Page

The Iowa State University Book Store is here to assist the faculty, students, and staff at Iowa State University. We are also here to assist student’s family and the Ames community.

We maintain the required database of information on all course materials including OER and “no text required.” Campus policy requires faculty and departments to identify what books and other course materials are required for their classes (or specify that a class will have no required materials) and submit this information to the ISU Book Store.

ALL items sold at the ISU Book Store are sales-tax free and course materials can be charged to the student U-Bill. Funds generated from purchases at the ISU Book Store stay on campus. Learn more from our Annual Report.

Do you have a question about adoptions that isn't answer here. Contact Emma Peterson.