Thank you so much. I am a currently a university student and a number of my books that I paid well over $150 for are truly difficult and counter intuitive texts. With the help of your site I have found the crutch that I have needed to surpass the difficulties of poor text books required of me to learn from. Thank you again. You’re doing a great thing for students everywhere. Thank you.
-Lee Nelson
I am an information technology instructor at our local community & technical college and I applaud what you are doing with this site. Thank you very much.
-Jason Dahl
Just a note to thank you. I have spent the last 10 years as a teaching volunteer in Papua New Guinea and the text book situation is quite deplorable – as I suspect it is in most of the Developing nations. Kids share 25-year old texts in the good areas – many just don’t have any texts at all. ANd the prices are completely prohibitive for the schools, where a few sticks of chalk are a once – year luxury – then back to dust-drawing lessons. Thanks again, on behalf of many millions.
-Russ Lorback
I’m a math student from Italy and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate what you’re doing for all us students all over the world. Thank you so much.
-Rocco Rossi
Link to Full Review |
TBR in the LangaList (21 November, 2005).
TBR is Red Orbit’s Technology Site of the Day (28 November 2005).
TBR on Yahoo’s business directory (also made Yahoo’s pick of the day sidebar on 28 November 2005, link now dead.)
TBR on Lifehacker (30 November 2005).
TBR mentioned in All Systems Go: The Newly Emerging Infrastructure to Support Free Books (16 December 2005).
TBR founder Jason Turgeon interviewed in the Brown Daily Herald (Brown University campus paper, 03 Feb 2006)
TBR in the Northeastern News (Northeastern University campus paper, 15 Feb 2006)
TBR in the Philadelphia Inquirer. (19 Feb 2006)
TBR in The Trail (University of Puget Sound campus paper, 24 Mar 2006)
TBR mentioned in Slashdot’s DRM Lite for Electronic Textbooks (23 Apr 2006)
TBR featured on FastWeb.com (15 Jun 2006)
TBR in BusinessWeek.com (12 Jul, 2006)
TBR in USA Today (17 Aug 2006)
TBR in Back To School: How to get to October in the black—tips for saving money at college on WTNH.com (22 Aug 06)
TBR in Keeping Textbook Costs Down (online supplement to TV news story, 7 News San Francisco, 22 Aug 2006)
TBR in The New Standard. (23 Aug 2006)
TBR in Science Magazine (1 Sept 2006)
TBR in the Warren County, Ohio, Tribune-Chronicle (4 Sept 2006)
TBR in the ElementList.com
TBR on the Kim Komando Radio Show (subscription site) (5 Sept 2006)
TBR mentioned on Marketplace Money (15 Sept 20006)
TBR featured in Educational Marketer magazine (09 Oct 2006)
TBR in US News & World Reports (16 Oct 2006)
Link to Full Review |
Textbook Revolution Announces Largest Repository of Free Textbooks on the Web
Immediate Release
January 4, 2005
Contact: Jason Turgeon
jason@textbookrevolution.org
Elizabeth Williamson, a professor at the Art Institute of Philadelphia, wanted her freshman writing class to better understand English grammar, but she didn’t want to make them buy another textbook. So she searched the internet, where she found Textbook Revolution, a non-profit website that catalogs free educational materials online. In just a few minutes, Williamson discovered dozens of free exercises to use with her class.
Textbook Revolution enables users from across the world access to an index of free textbooks, reference works, and related materials. The Textbook Revolution collection, found at http://www.textbookrevolution.org, links to hundreds of alternatives to traditionally expensive textbooks. Unlike some sites which host pirated copies of print textbooks, all of the material at Textbook Revolution is legally made available by the individual copyright holders.
Jason Turgeon, founder of Textbook Revolution, says that he first started the site after getting frustrated by the costs of a physics textbook for an introductory class. “The book for my college class was a brand-new edition, bundled with a CD that we didn’t use. It cost $126.” He went online and discovered many free alternatives such as Motion Mountain and the Light and Matter series, two highly regarded free physics texts that have been used in universities around the United States. “The more I looked, the more free books I found, and I saw that part of the problem was that the books weren’t well organized. Professors were writing them, students were asking for them, but there wasn’t an easy way to connect the two groups. This was something I felt like I could fix fairly easily.”
The response has been overwhelmingly positive. Jason Dahl, an instructor at Rochester Community and Technical College in New York, says “I applaud what you are doing at this site.” Textbook prices have grown so excessive at his school that students are considering organizing a textbook rental service. Russ Lorback, a teaching volunteer in Papua New Guinea, says that Textbook Revolution has provided an alternative to the 25 year-old textbooks his students were using. According to Dr. Ryan James, an American professor teaching in Hungary, “Here, university students do not buy books due to the cost.” The free materials at Textbook Revolution ease the burden on professors who would otherwise have to create photocopied readers, a difficult and time-consuming procedure which often leaves the instructors in violation of copyright laws.
Textbook Revolution requires no log-in or fee to access the advertisement-free repository. Every effort is made to contact and credit authors, and the website contains mirrors to preserve back-up copies of the materials. Textbook Revolution’s blog, The Stingy Scholar (http://www.stingyscholar.blogspot.com ), is updated daily with links and tutorials.
Textbook Revolution has been featured on many prominent sites including Yahoo! Picks, Lifehacker, Red Orbit’s Site of the Day, and Langalist. The repository appeared as a top story on popular social bookmarking sites Digg and Del.icio.us.
Link to Full Review |
