uCalgary students, administrators team up to support open-access textbooks

Students and administrators at the University of Calgary are joining forces to generate a dialogue about open-access textbooks and other academic publications. The university recently hosted a forum on open-access publications, following up on a provincial government commitment of $2 M to explore opportunities associated with using free educational resources. Jarret Henry, President of the uCalgary Students’ Union, said that adopting free resources can make a big difference for cash-strapped students. “Tuition is easy to budget for, but you don’t know what the cost of your textbooks is going to be. When you’re a high-school student and you’re looking at your postsecondary costs, you just look at tuition and maybe the cost of your residences, but there’s a lot of ancillary costs—textbooks, parking—and that’s a huge concern.” uCalgary's VP Library and Cultural Resources Tom Hickerson added that faculty authors like open access, as well, though they may not earn anything in royalties. “What they really want is to have an impact with their research and writing—that’s a real prize,” he said. Metro News