In some cases, yes – but in most cases, no. The first thing you should do before you opt not to buy your textbook(s) is to see if your professor or instructor has put a copy on course reserve. While an alternative to purchasing, please note that lending of these materials can be very limited (some may only be used for two hours in the library).
In some instances we do have textbooks in our general collection. To find out if we have a copy, please search the JHU Libraries Catalog. You may search by title or author in the basic search, or use the advanced search to search by ISBN. Please note that the edition we have may be older than what the professor is currently using.
Please keep in mind that if you thought about checking out the book from the library, it’s likely many of your classmates did as well. Some of the main reasons why we do not keep textbooks is that they often go missing or can end up defaced (pages torn out, written in, etc). For a successful semester, truly your best option is to buy or rent your textbooks.