Many professors at Sacramento State have written books, either as part of their research or to incorporate into their classroom curriculum. Ironically, their published work is reaching a larger audience than they anticipated.

Stephen Brock, associate special education, rehabilitation, and school psychology professor, has written four books and is currently working on several more. Of his books, he uses two of them in his classes.

“The students…find the course content and the lecture materials very consistent with their assigned readings,” he said.

He noted that there are potential downfalls to a professor lecturing from his or her own book, in that the material might be slanted.

“(Students) may not get the diverse opinions of the…material,” he said. “(But) as long as the professor is open to competing points of view, I don’t think there’s any problem with that.”

He also referred to the optional category of recommended reading on a syllabus that students can use as an additional resource.

David Corner, philosophy lecturer, wrote a book entitled “The Philosophy of Miracles,” which was published earlier this year.

“It’s taken from my doctoral dissertation,” he said. “It’s very specialized.”

As a result, the publication is more for a philosophical audience outside of the classroom.

The reasons he doesn’t use his book in his classes are twofold. It doesn’t pertain to any of the classes he is currently teaching, and he feels it might make students approach the material more cautiously.

“It just seems kind of strange to teach your own book,” Corner said. “It might limit student discussion if they didn’t like it.”

He said given the time, he would like to write more books. For now, he plans to write articles.

When a professor writes a book and notifies the University Library, the school purchases the book for the collection, said Ben Amata, reference librarian.

Additionally, it’s possible for the book to be sold at the bookstore, but professors don’t make any profit from sales on campus. Instead, the money they make is from the publisher.

Italian Associate Professor Barbara Carle wrote two books which are collections of Italian and English poetry and prose. While they were both published in 2006, some of the writing spans back 20 years.

Carle’s books are not written as instructional texts; rather, she said she compiled them for others to read because of her passion for writing.

“It’s one of my main activities,” she said. “It’s one of my main reasons for being.”

Natalye Childress Smith can be reached at [email protected].