By Victoria Durgin Co-Editor in Chief
Students could soon begin to see a dramatic decrease in the amount of money they spend on textbooks for classes thanks to a campaign led by the Blough Weis Library.
The library is working to encourage Susquehanna faculty to embrace “open textbooks”, which are online texts from reputable sources that are in many ways similar to traditional textbooks.
Open textbooks, however, cost significantly less thanks to no printing fees and nonprofit funding.
“The main advantage is that they are all free, or at least all free to access,” said Ryan Ake, a Blough Weis librarian.
Open textbooks are available on several online platforms including OpenStax, the one Ake often uses as an example.
OpenStax is a product of funding from Rice University and several charities including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and groups like the National Science Foundation, according to the OpenStax website.
Ake said the library is focusing its energy on the open textbooks campaign because they see the rising costs of textbooks as a burden for Susquehanna students.
“This is an area where we as librarians and faculty can actually have an impact on students and their costs to come to Susquehanna,” Ake said.
Much of this campaign will target faculty and encourage them to adopt open textbooks in their classrooms, according to Ake.
There are a few Susquehanna professors who already use the concept of open textbooks in their classes.
One of these professors is Christine Tiday, the Director of Teacher Interns and Auxiliary Programs and an education professor. Tiday assigns her students the task of creating an open resource on technology in the classroom.
This resource is distributed for local K-12 school districts to use in the classroom free of charge. Tiday is an advocate for considering open resources on campus and in classrooms around the country in part because those resources can be updated frequently at little cost.
“Tech is constantly changing, and we can just keep putting out a new [book] and it’s not costing us much to do,” Tiday said about the book her students create for teachers.
This brings a unique opportunity to professors as well, but open resources do require effort and time for the professor when considering and creating materials.
“You really invest a lot when you use a textbook and to switch from one to another is a huge investment of time,” said Tiday.
Ake called this investment the “biggest barrier” for professors and said he and the library staff want to help professors who consider switching materials.
“We can help faculty find resources and identify areas and ways to get them,” Ake said.
Tiday said she hopes the movement towards open textbooks and other educational resources will keep momentum on campus and beyond.
“I think making more free-flowing access to knowledge is the end goal,” Tiday said.
According to Ake the library staff hopes the campaign will begin to gain significant traction on campus and students will soon see the benefits in their bank accounts.
Both Tiday and Ake said they, and other faculty, sympathize with students and do think about the price of textbooks.
“I think it’s great we are considering it, and I think a lot of professors are,” Tiday said.
“We hear from students a lot and we’re trying to help,” Ake said.
According to Ake the library will continue to focus on open textbooks and encourage Susquehanna professors to consider free resources when planning their classes.
This push will continue into Open Education Week from March 2 through March 6, when the library plans to give information about textbooks and other resources across campus.
