Open access (OA) is a contemporary movement in scholarly research and higher education, designating books, websites, databases, course materials, and other resources that voluntarily place no restriction (paywalls, etc.) on access to their information and frequently also put up few or no barriers to the further use of that information (source).

For students, textbooks made available on an open access basis can mean the difference between paying hundreds of dollars for the latest edition of a mass-market textbook and paying for food, rent, bills, and necessities. Textbooks designated as open access are freely available online and most often contain exactly the same content as high-priced, commercially-published textbooks, at equivalent or even superior levels of quality. We at UB believe strongly in controlling or reducing the cost of education for all students, and in that spirit, we offer this guide to the best sources for open access textbooks on the Internet.