CASE STUDY
Southern New
Hampshire University
Forging New Ground by Going Digital
Established in 1932, Southern
New Hampshire University offers
undergraduate programs in business,
culinary arts, education, hospitality
management and liberal arts, and
graduate degree programs in business,
community economic development
and education. In addition to full-time
enrollment, SNHU provides flexible
arrangements that allow students
to attend classes on weekends or
evenings, or participate online through
SNHU Online, a distance learning leader
in New England. With roughly 130
full-time faculty and a diverse student
body of over 9,400 matriculating
students across all academic programs,
SNHU’s philosophy is to enrich and
intellectually invigorate students so they
reach their full potential and are ready
to enter an increasingly complex and
fast-paced world.
Establishing and moving
to a digital model
As a part of its collections development
process, Shapiro Library staff
at SNHU selected Books24x7’s
BusinessPro™, FinancePro™ and
ITPro™ book collections in 2007 for
their immense breadth and depth
of content and relevance to the
SNHU curriculum. Powered by the
industry’s most reputable publishers
and authors, BusinessPro provides
a blend of theoretical and practical
texts addressing all aspects of
business, management and corporate
development. FinancePro contributes
solid information on a variety of financial
topics encountered in the global
workplace ranging from accounting,
auditing and investments, to mergers,
taxation and valuation. ITPro provides
a vast library of recent, best-in-class
titles spanning hundreds of technology
topics including programming, operating
systems, information security, graphic
design, networking and databases.
Students, patrons and geographically
dispersed staff and distance learners
receive complete access to these
resources through Shapiro Library,
regardless of time of day or location.
Challenge
As a university that is committed to
sustainable practices, credited as a U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency Green
Power Partner and recognized as the
first carbon-neutral university in New
Hampshire, SNHU continues to explore
various course formats, ranging from
entirely digital to a hybrid mixture of print
and online resources. For the past few
years the university has experimented
with expanding online course delivery
and promoting more consistent delivery
styles among faculty. SNHU’s Associate
Professor of Marketing, Dr. Andy
Lynch, took the lead in rolling out a
prototype curriculum for his Introduction
to Marketing class−based entirely off
books in Books24x7, external Websites
and self-developed course materials.
“My class is intended to be a model
Results
•• Expanding course delivery
styles, methods and formats
•• Geographically dispersed
student population
•• Focus on sustainability
Solution
•• Easy-to-share, paperless
course materials
•• Consistent delivery
of resources
•• ITPro™, BusinessPro™,
FinancePro™,
WellbeingEssentials™ and
IT & Desktop Videos™
•• Integrating Books24x7 into
courses has resulted in
greater recognition of
library resources
•• Increased utilization
of Books24x7
•• Reduced paper
consumption and
printing costs
•• Lower textbooks costs
for students
for other faculty in my department to
evaluate and decide whether they want
to move to a similar, paperless system
or something midway,” said Lynch.
Introducing the
paperless classroom
Our foray into
integrating Books24x7
into our courses has
introduced us to the
digital evolution
shaping classrooms
and universities,
redefined our course
delivery methods
and resulted in
increased utilization
of Books24x7, greater
recognition of library
resources and
tremendous costsavings to our
learner population.
to assemble course materials that are
tightly aligned to their objectives in an
efficient, economical and eco-friendly
manner. Rather than rely on printed
textbooks as the guidelines for a class,
professors are able to extract the most
pertinent chapters and information from
multiple Books24x7 sources, and share
them with students by posting their
persistent page URLs to course packets
or content management systems. In Dr.
Lynch’s case, his students work from a
primary BusinessPro text and access
up to 15 external Books24x7 references
throughout his course.
Dr. Lynch’s Introduction to Marketing
course is partitioned into modules
which are coupled with structured
reading assignments that can be
downloaded either as a PDF from
Blackboard® or viewed as a course
page in Blackboard. Persistent URLs
pointing to specific pages of Books24x7
titles are embedded into the PDF and
Endorsements and savings
the corresponding course module page
across the board
in Blackboard. Students can click on a
persistent URL within the PDF or course
Moving the classroom into the cloud
module page in Blackboard to launch
has elicited greater acceptance from
Books24x7 immediately, login through
Dr. Lynch’s students as their familiarity
Brooke Ratto
their library and get started with their
with digital technology grows. After the
Periodicals & Education Librarian at
required reading. As an added benefit,
completion of each module, students are
Southern New Hampshire University
Books24x7 personalization tools are
surveyed to determine how frequently
also available to students, such as
they accessed Book24x7, their
personal folders for organizing and
preference for an entirely online, print
storing titles, bookmarks for saving crucial pages and notes
or hybrid course format and other data points. In general,
for attaching comments to particularly important paragraphs Books24x7 utilization climbed and approval ratings rose for
in the text.
online or hybrid course architectures with the progression
through each module.
Books24x7’s “share” button is positioned on every table of
contents page and content view of a title. Clicking a page’s
In terms of cost-savings and benefits, Books24x7 helps
“share” button will generate its persistent URL or durable
faculty shrink paper consumption and printing costs,
link which can be collaboratively shared with other patrons
removes the potential for distance learners to purchase
who have access to Books24x7. With Books24x7’s digital
incorrect editions and lowers textbook costs and carrying
book libraries and durable links, professors are empowered
burden for students.
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