The Fort-Worth Star Telegram reports on legislation passed in Texas earlier this year (2009) that would enable the Texas Education Agency to create an online repository of open source textbooks for schools to adopt. The state would also have the right to modify and update the works after purchase.
News from Florida: Free open textbooks for everyone.
It was announced recently that a joint program called Orange Grove Texts Plus (OGT+) has been established between the University Press of Florida (UFP) and The Orange Grove, Florida’s Digital Repository, to provide free downloads of open access textbooks. Downloads of electronic versions of books are available to anyone from the Orange Grove website. Print copies can be ordered “for about half the cost of traditional textbooks” (see “For Students”).
Most of the news stories I saw on the announcement said this would be free for Florida students (they were Florida-based publications) but as open access web resources go, they are indeed available to those outside of Florida. Currently, 126 books are available in the collection (here’s the list [PDF]) but they plan to include a “large selection” of titles from UFP’s 1600 title backlist.
You can browse the collection online at The Orange Grove site and choosing:
Browse Collections > Open Textbook Resources
It seems the movement away from high priced textbooks is gaining momentum. I saw references to these three happenings in the past few weeks:
Here are some additional sites:
While taking the latest beta redesign of the Ebscohost search interface for a spin I noticed they’ve integrated the popular Add This bookmark button right next to the permanent URL in every article citation.
This particular bookmarking tool is used by many sites on the web and I anticipate our students will recognize it. Whether they choose to add links to this kind of content on places like Facebook or Myspace is another story. At least the option is available. Here’s the sharing list that pops up when the button is clicked:
The Wired Campus Blog posted today (by way of Kairosnews) about an open access program at THE Ohio State University Press. THE Press has made a selection of out-of-print books from their catalog available for download (PDF). While THE Press (or individual author) retains copyright for the works, the copyright statement on the books I browsed says the “…PDF files contain the complete text of the book and may be used for any non-commercial purpose.”
What a great step for a publisher. Now students and other researchers can access a number of materials they might not otherwise find in a local library or have the patience to wait for via interlibrary loan. Assuming, of course, that libraries can catalog and link to these texts or add them to an already existing e-book collection. Any other university presses doing this yet?