Professors sign on to open-access textbooks
By Chris Eldredge
April 16, 2008 10:54 p.m.
The free online textbook Professor Jake Lusis uses for his mouse genetics class is the best book he could find.
Students can buy a printed copy of the book, but the microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics professor said many of his students prefer the online version.
“It’s a pretty expensive book if you buy it by itself, and we don’t cover all the chapters,” he said.
Largely because the online textbook in his genetics class has been well-received, Lusis decided to sign a statement pledging to consider open textbooks when deciding on the most appropriate texts for his classes.
An open textbook is a book the author has decided to make freely accessible on the Internet. In most cases, the text can be downloaded or printed but not sold for a profit.
The California Public Interest Research Group, which organized the statement, announced 1,000 signatures Tuesday as Congress continues to consider legislation that would address issues concerning textbook affordability.
“What this demonstrates to the textbooks market is that instructors want their students to have the best books, but they want them to be affordable,” said Nicole Allen, textbook advocate for CALPIRG.
Textbooks cost students about $900 each year, and during the past decade prices have increased more than four times faster than inflation, according to a statement from CALPIRG.
“Textbook affordability is a critical issue for today’s students, with textbook costs rising faster than inflation and tuition, textbooks can price students out of higher education,” Allen said.
Only seven UCLA professors have signed the statement because professors have only been contacted about the statement through e-mail, said Sarah Dobjensky, chair of the UCLA chapter of CALPIRG.
Among other benefits, open textbooks allow students to print only chapters relevant to the course, Dobjensky said.
Bruce Hildebrand, executive director for higher education at the Association of American Publishers, said writing a textbook takes an enormous amount of time and the association supports authors willing to donate that time by releasing free online books.
“A major textbook and all of the supplemental materials that go with it can require 20 or 30 man-years of time and expertise to produce, and I applaud anybody that would make that commitment and then donate that book,” Hildebrand said.
Christine Borgman, professor and presidential chair of the information studies department, signed the statement partly because she was already active in the movement for open access to academic material.
Borgman, who has written about open access in her recent book, “Scholarship in the Digital Age,” said freely available academic information is not necessarily of lower quality.
“There are some very expensive journals that don’t have very good articles in them, and then there are some free open-access journals that are among the top in their field,” she said.
The announcement that 1,000 signatures have been reached comes as legislation about textbook affordability is being debated in Congress. Legislation has been passed by the House, but the Senate version does not address textbooks, Allen said.
The House bill would require publishers to disclose prices, offer unbundled versions and require universities to inform students of required textbooks in advance. The two versions are being reconciled in conference committee.
Neil Yamaguchi, academic support director for the UCLA Store, said though the UCLA textbook store plays no role in choosing textbooks, the store is aware of the problem high costs pose for students.
The UCLA Store is considering a textbook rental or guaranteed buyback program, he added.
In the past, the UCLA Store has lowered prices by a combined $250,000 and introduced e-books to address the high cost of books.
“We’re constantly looking for ways to lower the cost of course materials,” Yamaguchi said.
The push to make published academic material freely accessible online is part of the same social movement that has popularized Web sites such as YouTube, Facebook, MySpace and Flickr, Borgman said.
“Publishers aren’t going away, and the open-access movement isn’t either,” she said.
