Book Review: Affordable Course Materials: Electronic Textbooks and Open Educational Resources
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5860/lrts.62n3.149Abstract
The nine case studies collected in Affordable Course Materials cite research that points to the same truth students across the country face with each new academic term: the price of textbooks far outpaces the rate of inflation. According to an oft-cited report released by the Government Accountability Office in 2013, the price of the average new textbook rose 82 percent in the preceding decade—three times the rate of inflation.1 These case studies assert the claim that libraries, already both a central part of the campus community and committed to equal access to information resources, are perfectly poised to mitigate the cost of core texts. By facilitating access to course materials in innovative ways, libraries can alleviate the financial burden on the students they serve. This volume showcases approaches taken by academic libraries to benefit their campus communities, the challenges the authors faced, and the lessons learned. It serves as a valuable source of information and inspiration for those wishing to implement their own initiatives.
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC-BY-NC 4.0) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) after it has been accepted for publication. Sharing can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
