Last Updated on April 4, 2019, 6:03 pm ET
Today, US Senators Durbin (D-IL), King (I-ME), Smith (D-MN) and Sinema (D-AZ) and US Representative Neguse (D-CO) re-introduced the Affordable College Textbook Act. The bill would create a grant program to support projects on open textbooks. The current bill is largely similar to the version introduced in the last Congress with a few key changes including new language to improve accessibility of materials created under the bill for students with disabilities and amending the Higher Education Act to require publishers to disclose whether material is an open educational resource (OER).
ARL, along with ACRL, SPARC, Creative Commons, US PIRG and ten other organizations currently support this bill. ARL urges Congress to pass this bill to help address the high cost of college textbooks, which can be a barrier to education.
