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Library offers alternatives to pricey textbooks, other course materials

By Public Affairs

Textbooks (Photo courtesy of Creative Commons.)
Textbooks (Photo courtesy of Creative Commons.)

The University Library is leading an effort to help UC Berkeley students with often costly course materials.

The pilot programs have support from the Arcadia Fund and are broken into three parts: providing free course packs, the often hefty sheafs of assigned readings that students often have to pay for; paying professors to switch to free digital versions of their books; and supplying grants for creation of new, openly accessible course texts.

The free course packs and the digital versions of course materials are available starting this semester. The new course materials, or open educational resources, will be available next spring or fall.

More than 20 classes in subjects ranging from economics to earthquakes and class sizes ranging from 15 to 350 students are part of the pilots.

Read more on the library website