Textbooks

Fall 2026

Affordability Deadline: Monday, April 20, 2026*

Accommodation Deadline: Friday, July 3, 2026**

Spring 2027

Affordability Deadline: Monday, October 19, 2026*

Accommodation Deadline: Friday, December 4, 2026**

Summer 2027

Affordability Deadline: Monday, March 1, 2027*

Accommodation Deadline: Friday, April 9, 2027**

*HEOA affordability deadline to submit textbook adoptions to the Cal Student Store.

**Seven-week accommodation deadline by which textbooks and readers should be adopted/available for purposes of accommodating students with disabilities.

Once the adoption process opens for a given term, instructors will receive a separate email with a link to the Adoption and Insights Portal (AIP). Once logged in, select the ‘I’d like to be guided through the adoption process’ option and use the ‘Search by ISBN or Keyword’ option to search for the book. When you have finished adding materials for your course, click on the ‘Submit Adoptions’ button at the bottom of the page.

The Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) has provisions to reduce costs to students while supporting the faculty’s ability to select high-quality course materials. The HEOA requires that course textbook information be made available to students before they enroll in a course. UC Berkeley complies with the HEOA by asking faculty to submit textbook orders to the Cal Student Store—even in cases where faculty place orders with independent bookstores—so the textbooks can be listed in the course catalog. Submitting book lists (regardless of where books were ordered) also allows the Cal Student Store to buy back textbooks at the end of the semester and offer them at a discount in the future.

Each faculty member has the responsibility to identify instructional materials for their courses far enough in advance of the semester so that the Disabled Students’ Program has adequate time to convert them into an accessible format (e.g., Braille, large print, or digital/electronic). Timely submission of textbook adoption enables the University to meet its legal requirement to provide students with disabilities an equal educational opportunity to learn course subject matter, to participate actively in classroom discussions, and to meet assignment deadlines.

Consider these ways to reduce costs and ensure accessibility for textbooks:

Use common textbooks, where possible, for related courses or keep the same text for two or more years.
Submit your course lists for required books and films to the Library and request that those materials be provided as digital course reserves (not all titles can be provided as e-reserves).
Create online readers that combine open educational resources with electronic resources licensed by the Library
Use electronic and open content solutions available to students at low or no cost.
Meet textbook adoption deadlines to allow timely course book availability and low-cost book options.
Work with the Disabled Students’ Program to provide students with print disabilities a copy of the course textbook/reader in an accessible format (note: for conversion purposes, it is important that course-reader text be clean and legible).
Meet textbook/reader identification deadlines to allow timely conversion and thus equal educational opportunity for students with print disabilities.

For more information on instructor accessibility responsibilities for faculty, visit the DSP website. For assistance in submitting textbook orders to the Cal Student Store, email text@berkeley.edu or call 510-291-4509

Textbooks

Important Deadlines

Fall 2026

Spring 2027

Summer 2027

How Do I Add My Adoptions?

Affordability Requirements

Accessibility Requirements

Tips for Reducing Cost and Increasing Accessibility for Textbooks