Unyp brings textbooks online with a new Perlego deal

University students worldwide spend a lot of money on textbooks – often textbooks that they only need for part of a program. Printed textbooks tend to be expensive, straining a student’s limited budget, and it is not always possible to buy second-hand textbooks or borrow them from the library, which might push some students to search for illegal and sometimes incomplete copies online. Restrictions imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic have also strained the provision of educational resources. At the University of New York in Prague, we are committed to reopening our physical library spaces and services for our students, but in the meantime, we have decided to expand our online services to bring the UNYP Library to you. 

UNYP became the first university in the Czech Republic to bring textbooks online by partnering with Perlego. 

From September 2020, UNYP will be subscribing to the Perlego textbook platform. This partnership between UNYP and Perlego provides unlimited free digital textbooks to students that allows everyone to continue learning safely anywhere and at any time. Students and faculty will have free access to over 400k book titles, with the goal of 100% access to diverse course readings for graduate and undergraduate programs. While it is a considerable investment, we feel that the ensuring access and diversity will revolutionize the learning process. Free online access to a library of this size means that our students won’t be confined to a single mandatory book per class, but can work with dozens of excerpts from different books, while saving significant amounts of money on buying new books each semester. The free use of digital textbooks will prove to be part of a broader change in how the University of New York in Prague supports its students. The adoption and provision of technologies such as Perlego is a significant international trend for universities and colleges, and UNYP is proud to go with the times. 

What is Perlego? 

Perlego is often called the ‘Spotify for textbooks’ in the media. As an online subscription service, Perlego gives its subscribers unlimited access to 400,000 titles, including a range of textbooks and non-fiction books, as well as a referencing tool that makes it easier for students to reference ebooks in their essays and theses. Perlego offers a great opportunity to improve learning outcomes by simply making content more accessible.

How can UNYP students benefit from free digital learning materials?

UNYP trialed the partnership with Perlego during the Spring semester. We had an incredible response, with many students creating their free accounts within the first week, and the helpful feedback we received confirmed that working with Perlego was the right decision. Of course, we noted a significant shift in how students accessed educational materials during the pandemic lockdown, but we believe that the convenience of the system will make it highly popular during more normal times, and that this alternative way of accessing textbooks has the potential to become the standard. 

The University of New York in Prague is known for going above and beyond for its students, and exploring new ways to deliver library resources online was the next logical step. In recent months, it has become clear that UNYP’s student body and faculty require remote access to educational resources, provided in a simple and straightforward way. We strongly believe that Perlego offers a unique approach that facilitates this, and will directly benefit our educational process. We are looking forward to continuing our collaboration this Fall, helping students and library staff access an extensive range of online resources efficiently and cost-effectively. This collaboration aims to support teaching, learning, and research at the University of New York in Prague. 

Download the press release