Coursepack FAQ

Custom Publishing was designed to create customized curriculum for CWU instructors and students. Although we have expanded our services, our primary function is the creation of Coursepacks. This service takes the challenge out of obtaining copyright permissions for instructors, while offering the students the convenience of obtaining all their course materials at one location at the most affordable price. Instructors may include materials in their Coursepack from self-generated items, textbooks, regular books, newspapers, magazines, the internet, etc. Simply submit the materials (in the order you would like them to appear) with a typed bibliography, and bring them to the Custom Publishing Department located in the Wildcat Shop.

Custom Publishing saves students money by combining various curriculum materials the professor put together into one package, eliminating excess items. A Custom Publishing Coursepack offers students organized materials that are bound together, instead of random handouts and loose papers that are easily misplaced. The students pick up their coursepacks, textbooks, and supplies in one convenient location and charge them to their student accounts.

Many academic departments on campus have reduced operating costs by encouraging instructors to use our services for handouts and other class materials. We make Coursepacks as small as 6 pages and up to 800+ pages. One department tracked copies made by instructors and logged over 12,000 copies for one instructor during one term. An English Department instructor who has been using our Custom Publishing services for ten years to produce and sell her handouts remarked that students have a tendency to lose handouts, so she often had to give out more than one copy to each student. When students pay even a nominal fee for handouts, they tend not to lose them. It is much easier to keep track of a "book" than loose papers.

To order a coursepack, fill out the online order form and someone from the Custom Publishing department will contact you shortly.

You should treat a Coursepack the same as a textbook and order it as early as possible, especially if your packet contains copyrighted material. If you are unable to bring in the originals right away, bring in, use interoffice mail, or email your bibliography to us so we can start the permissions process. We can usually complete your coursepack by the first day of classes if you submit all your materials at least four weeks before you need the students to have access to them. If students need to order the coursepack online for an off-campus class, it is a good idea to allow more time.

Unfortunately, no. The sheer volume of materials that we process in a few short weeks prohibits copy-editing. It is a good idea to double-check your materials before you bring them in to confirm they are in the right order or are clearly labeled in the order you want them to appear. Check your spelling, and check photocopies for complete sets of pages. It isn’t unusual for us to receive incomplete articles from instructors who then leave town. Since many instructors use partial chapters and articles, we cannot assume the pages are missing. We do our best to ensure all materials are present before printing, but if materials or pages are left out and the instructor is unreachable, we may have to print what we have in order to meet deadlines.

We need a complete bibliography (in order of appearance) for all packets that use copyrighted material. If you did NOT PRODUCE the material(s) personally, then more than likely we need to obtain some kind of permission(s). This includes graphs, tables, artwork, cartoons, logos, and any articles that have been copyrighted. The law does not require a "copyright notice" for legal protection—everything is protected by copyright including your personal letters, emails, and message board essays. Bibliographies must include author, copyright year, title of the article or chapter, title of the publication or book, ORIGINAL PAGE NUMBERS (not the page numbers of anthology), Publisher. Please see the sample bibliography.

If you are using material from an anthology, you will need to find the acknowledgments page(s) and possibly find the original page numbers in our library or Readers Periodical Index (which lists all articles including page numbers).

If you have obtained permission from the author, we need a copy of the written permission. It can be in the form of a letter, memo, or email from the author/copyright holder.

If you are using a student’s paper, please obtain written permission to include it in your coursepack. A very simple "I hereby give my permission for (name) ____________ to use my paper entitled _______________ in the coursepack for _____________." It is a good idea to get the signature dated. Also include whether the permission is for one term only, or perpetuity.

You will receive one complimentary Desk Copy per section being taught. The cost of your complimentary copy is NOT added to the cost of the student coursepacks. Please inform us if you would like to "proof" your copy before we go to print. In most cases we proof the materials for printing set-up errors only. If you need more desk copies, it depends on how many students are enrolled for your class. Generally, we provide one complimentary copy if you have up to 30 students enrolled and can provide an additional complimentary copy for every 20 students enrolled over 30. If you have 50 students enrolled, you are eligible to receive 2 complimentary copies, if you have 70, three complimentary copies--and so on. If you still need more Desk Copies, we can either spread the cost of the extra copies over the student prices, or we can do a department charge for the number you need.

We often find that our ability to professionally scan materials from originals creates a better, cleaner copy than most office copiers, and this can be helpful in terms of readability. We have some instructors who bring in photocopies of everything, and some who bring just the books, and some who bring in both. Whether you bring in copies or the publications themselves, we will "clean" them up as much as we can so that your students get the best quality materials we can provide.

Whether you bring in books or photocopies, please remember to bring in your typed bibliography that includes page numbers from the ORIGINAL source. If you are using material from an anthology, you will need to find the acknowledgments page(s) and possibly find the original page numbers in our library or Readers Periodical Index (which lists all articles including page numbers).