Students crowded around tables at Smith Plaza to pick out available free books and learn about free educational resources on Tuesday, Oct. 21, and Wednesday, Oct. 22.
The University of New Mexico Open Educational Resources initiative hosted book fairs where onlookers were encouraged to take free books and learn about an initiative that seeks to connect faculty members to low-cost and no-cost textbooks and class material solutions.
Samantha “Sammi” Williams, the program coordinator of UNM OER, said that the event was a major success with many people stopping by to take advantage of the available free books.
“My thing is that free books are important. Books are important. The more you read, the more you know, the more you critically think. That’s what we’re trying to help here, today,” Williams said.
Friends of the Public Library sponsored the event, providing books and information about their own program that promotes summer reading events and hosts book sales to support access to libraries and literature.
By the end of the event, most available books had been taken out of the 18 cases donated by Friends of the Public Library. The books spanned genres and languages, with titles available in both English and Spanish.
“The moment that we start putting a book on the table, people flock,” Williams said. “We didn’t even have to put the signs out, we didn’t even have to say anything, the moment that the book started going on the table, people were here.”
Open educational access is the free distribution of digital teaching and learning materials that the public may use and reuse without any charge. The literature is free because it has been authored or created by an individual or organization that chooses to retain few to no ownership rights, Williams said.
“It removes barriers caused by subscriptions and licensing fees and promotes scholarly growth, and then open educational resources — what we do is we help faculty get free textbooks for classes,” Williams said.
Jessica Langer, secretary of the Board of Friends of the Public Library, said that in her experience, interest in reading — particularly in print books — is still prevalent in young people.
“We definitely see young people at our sales and they like the print books. I’ve had some of them say they don’t like reading on the eReaders. They prefer to hold an actual physical book in their hands and be able to see how many pages they have left and where they are in the story,” Langer said.
Langer and Williams expressed a desire to continue events such as this one, citing the success of this event as a reason to make a tradition of it, they said.
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“Because of how successful this turned out, we’re thinking we’ll try and do it at least once a year, if not twice a year,” Williams said.
One UNM student, junior Mackenzie Mehaffey, came to the event after receiving an email with information about the book fair.
Mehaffey said that print books, like the ones available at the event, better hold her focus.
“There is so much on social (media) and to watch that is always available pretty rapidly, so there is less instant gratification and more overall satisfaction that comes with a book,” Mehaffey said. “I always read when I was younger and I didn’t really watch TV.”
Mehaffey also expressed appreciation for the fair itself, saying that events such as this one can bring people with overlapping interests together.
“I think it gets people close together. There is a similar subject, similar cause, ways to spark conversation,” Mehaffey said.
Addison Fulton is the culture editor for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at culture@dailylobo.com or on X @dailylobo
Addie Gerber is the Design Director for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at design@dailylobo.com or on X @dailylobo
