"One of the effects of high costs of textbooks is that it has started conversations on campus about the limitations of traditional textbooks and created opportunities for faculty to tailor more of their material
to their course or even go beyond textbooks to other collections of resources,” Allen said. The changing role of libraries has possibly contributed to lower student spending, Allen said.
“Libraries have gotten a lot more engaged in conversations around course materials,” Allen said. “They’ve been working with faculty to help get students access to academic materials.”
This is very encouraging in my opinion. We must continue to encourage these campus conversations, so that faculty relies less on textbooks and more on teaching. Being able to adapt existing materials to the needs of your learners is one of the biggest advantages
of using an open textbook, in my opinion.