Green Library holds between 50 and 90 textbooks on course reserve each quarter for students to borrow. But with the help of administrators, faculty and librarians, a trio of undergraduate senators plans to implement a winter quarter pilot program that will double the number of textbooks available.

Senator Vang Kou Khang ‘08 said that there is a demand to increase the number of reserve textbooks because many students cannot afford the high cost of those sold at the Stanford Bookstore.

Senator Sarah Golabek-Goldman ‘10 got the idea for the program last year when talking to a friend who complained about the high prices of many textbooks.

“He told me that he had to rely on the textbooks on reserve because the ones in the Bookstore are so astronomically expensive for so many students,” Golabek-Goldman said.

Khang, working with Golabek-Goldman and Senator Luukas Ilves ‘09, contacted Green librarians, Bookstore employees and professors from various departments to gauge the demand for certain textbooks. Considerations included student recommendations, library loan records, Bookstore sale records, class enrollments and the probability that a new edition will not be published in the near future.

Ilves said a final list of the books to be used in the pilot program will be formulated within the next few weeks.

Funding for the program will come from the discretionary funds of Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education John Bravman ‘79.

In an email to The Daily, Bravman said he will commit to fund next quarter’s program, but at this time he is not prepared to continue funding the program even if the pilot is a success.

Nevertheless, Golabek-Goldman said she was grateful for an “administrator who was receptive to an idea like this.”

“[Bravman] even mentioned that when he was a student at Stanford, he often relied on textbooks on reserve,” she said.

The senators also hope that with more textbooks on reserve at Green, students will be able to borrow books for longer than the three hours currently allowed.

“Right now you can only check [textbooks] out for three hours, which isn’t really good when you’re trying to study for an exam,” Golabek-Goldman said. “Hopefully, with more textbooks in the future, students will be able to check them out for longer periods.”

But Khang emphasized that there will be limitations to next quarter’s program because it is only a trial.

“This is a pilot program, so we’re not able to increase books for every single class,” he said.

Potential difficulties do not end there. If the pilot program is successful, the library will not have enough space to expand its reserve area, according to Director of Library Communications Andrew Herkovic.

“If this turns out to be the best thing that ever happened at Stanford, and there really is a tremendous demand for textbooks materials, we would be in real trouble,” he said. “The reserve area just doesn’t have the physical capacity for presumably multiple copies of hundreds of courses worth of textbooks.”

Herkovic did note, however, that other universities provide textbooks on reserve, and that some are even required to do so by law.

“Virginia passed a state law a few years ago stating that public universities have to provide textbooks on course reserves,” he said.

Ilves said that the three senators will be contacting universities in Virginia over the holiday break to learn how their programs work.

Golabek-Goldman said that once the pilot program is in place, students will be able to submit feedback and recommendations through the ASSU Web site.