Did you hear that scream of joy from students across the state of Minnesota? Did the Vikings win? The Gophers? Maybe… Or maybe it was because of the recent announcement that Minnesota has joined the Open Text Book movement! This is part of the Open Textbook Library, a website that pulls together open access books in one place. “Those are not books we’re creating,” said David Ernst, chief information officer at the University of Minnesota’s College of Education. “Open textbooks have been published for years. We’re just putting them in one place.”

Ernst explained further: “The students can save thousands of dollars on the cost of their education, and professors and instructors can easily customize the books to their lesson plans without worrying about infringing on copyrighted material.” As the Open Textbook Library website explains, the “Open textbooks are real, complete textbooks licensed so teachers and students can freely use, adapt, and distribute the material.” CMLE has talked about Open Textbooks before. No longer a fad, open textbooks are a way to help students keep a little more money in their pockets without taking away from the quality of their education.

Read the whole article now or check out the Open Textbook Library.