Meredith Babb, director of University Press of Florida, explained a new textbook movement to TCU students and staff at the Mary Couts Burnett Library.

At the Open Access Textbook conference, Babb said 30 percent of students are not buying textbooks due to high costs. A new movement of Open Access Textbooks provides students with affordable texts ranging from $25 to $50.

These Open Access books are freely accessible digital textbooks that can be read online, Babb said. Self printed and opened on any device that can read a PDF, she added.

“We are not out to replace commercial textbooks. The whole idea behind Open Access Texts is to find text for students that are accurate and affordable,” Babb said. “But from a faculty point of view, we are adaptable and acceptable.”  

Senior writing major John Roberts and junior writing and biology double major Kristi Dena, who works for the TCU Press, attended the conference and are in favor of the e-book.

The use of Open Access Textbooks would be beneficial  to students not only by saving money but saving room in backpacks as well, she said. The accessibility would be nice because students would only need their computers and they wouldn’t have to lug around all their textbooks, she said.

“There are so many times where I have gone to classes where I’m like ‘If I had access to books that were a lot cheaper I would actually buy them,’ because I don’t buy a lot of textbooks for my classes,” Roberts said.

As of now, there are about 22 universities that are actively involved in editing and writing textbooks, however there are many more schools that have adopted and are using Open Access Textbooks in the classroom.

Roberts said he thought TCU had a good market from Open Access Textbooks. Dan Williams, director of the TCU Press, said he is trying to bring this idea to TCU.

“Were trying to reach both the constituencies by preparing quality peer reviewed textbooks that meet faculty standards but are offered at a very low print cost with unlimited downloads to infinite devices,” Babb said.

The benefits of e-book are favorable, Roberts said, and it is likely that we will be seeing more of them on campus in the near future.