Be Book Smart: Resources and Alternatives

Every day, new websites are emerging with the aim of reducing the cost of academic materials or of offering them for free. The Students’ Union does not endorse any of these sites, but lists them below to illustrate this emerging trend. Please e-mail bebooksmart@ussu.ca if you know of more non-traditional sources.

Connexions — Provides free, open-source academic material, often through grants and donations.
CourseSmart — Offers subscriptions to popular textbooks such as eTexts for a limited time.
Creative Commons — A non-profit organization that provides Open Access friendly licenses for academic, commercial and private use. Six licenses allow for customization of protection.
Directory of Open Access Journals — Free access to nearly five-thousand Open Access Journals of scholarly articles. All entries in these journals are either peer-reviewed or subject to editorial control.
Freeload Press — Provides reduced-cost or free eTexts by employing in-page advertising.
OpenCourseWare Consortium — A collaboration of more than 200 higher education institutions from around the world, this site provides open educational content using a shared model.

Canadian Roundtable on Academic Materials
CRAM was established in early 2008 to find solutions to escalating textbook costs. Post-secondary institutes from across Canada have joined this exchange of ideas, and many have also begun to combat rising prices.

Articles and Background Information
University Of Saskatchewan Bookstore’s textbook webpage:  A guide on how to save money on textbook purchases.

Canadian Student Review - Hitting the Books:  An article on the problems faced by Canadian students when purchasing textbooks.

PIRGs - Ripoff 101:  An article by the State PIRGs Higher Education Project revealing harmful publishing practices.

PIRGS - Exposing the Textbook Industry:  An article by several Public Interest Research Groups on the practices that the textbook industry uses to drive up the costs of textbooks.

US Government Accountability Office’s - College Textbooks Report:  A 2005 report to the US Congress by the Government Accountability Office on increasing textbook prices.

The Student PIRGs - Course Correction:  An article written by several student Public Interest Research Groups discussing texts and the direction in which they're headed.

Bill Smith, former University of Alberta Students' Union General Manager - NART Report:  This report to the predecessor of the Canadian Roundtable on Academic Materials outlines the development of this issue.

Campus Stores Canada Advocacy website:  This site highlights efforts by Canadian University and College Bookstores to reduce the price of textbooks.