Open Access News

News from the open access movement


Friday, January 25, 2008

Sign on to support OA textbooks

George Porter, Preston McAfee signs Faculty Statement of Intent supporting Make Textbooks Affordable, Open Access Authoring @ Caltech, January 23, 2008.  Excerpt:

R. Preston McAfee, J. Stanley Johnson Professor of Business, Economics and Management, signs Faculty Statement of Intent regarding open textbooks at Make Textbooks Affordable. It reads, in part:

As faculty members, we affirm that it is our prerogative and responsibility to select course materials that are pedagogically most appropriate for our classes. We also affirm that it is consistent with this principle to seek affordable and accessible course materials for our classes whenever possible. This includes “open textbooks,” which are textbooks offered online to students at no cost.

Dr. McAfee himself has written an open textbook, Introduction to Economic Analysis. Both NYU and Harvard have adopted it as a text for economics courses. The book can be found through the textbook’s website and through CaltechBook.
A selection of courses which have used McAfee's open textbook includes....

Update.  Also see the press release from StudentPIRGs on the sign-up initiative.

Update.  Also see Heather Morrison's comments on the initiative.