Find Affordable Textbooks
Zero Cost Course Materials Classes
Find out if your class is using zero cost course materials (ZCCM) by looking for the ZCCM logo in the course schedule. For more information about ZCCM courses, please see Zero Cost Course Materials for Students down below.
Library Resources
Professor assigned a textbook for your course? Hoping to find access to this material for free? Well, you're in luck!
Through our Library Reserves service, we offer access to hundreds of textbooks and other materials (books, videos, etc.) assigned by CSUSM instructors. To see a list of all courses that have Library Reserves Reading Lists for this semester, visit the Library Reserves webpage.
Other library resources to check if your textbook is not available on Library Reserves:
- CSU+ - CSU+ includes materials available from all 23 CSU libraries. You can request a physical textbook be sent to CSUSM for free by submitting a CSU+ request using the blue Get It button on an item record.
- Interlibrary Loan - If the textbook you need is not available through CSU+ or you can't find the item in OneSearch, you can submit a manual request in your Interlibrary Loan account. These books can come from any library in the world!
Can't Find Your Textbook?
If you're textbook isn't available for free through the University Library, check these websites to find affordable textbook rentals and to purchase used books.
- CSUSM University Bookstore - price matching offered!
- AbeBooks
- Amazon Textbooks
- Campus Books
- Chegg
- RedShelf
- Valore Books
- VitalSource
Zero Cost Course Materials for Students
What is ZCCM?
The ZCCM symbol is used to identify courses that exclusively use digital course materials that are free of charge to students and may have a low-cost option for print versions. These materials may include open educational resources, institutionally licensed campus library materials that all students enrolled in the course have access to use, and other properly licensed and adopted materials. Ultimately, these materials are free of charge and therefore not required to be purchased by the student.
How do I find ZCCM courses?
This symbol is in the course schedule to represent courses that use either free textbooks or no textbooks. There are two ways you can search for a ZCCM course in the course schedule:
1. When you do a search of the course schedule, you can filter by courses that have the ZCCM logo to locate these courses
2. When looking at which course section to register for, look for the ZCCM logo
