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"Despite the widely publicized rising sticker prices on tuition, about two-thirds of the increase in the cost of attending a four-year college from 2000 to 2009 came from nontuition sources, such as books and off-campus room and board, according to a report released on Thursday by the Center for College Affordability and Productivity."

"When Georgia's need-based HOPE grant for technical college students stopped helping them pay for textbooks last year, administrators at South Georgia Technical College decided to take matters into their own hands. The college announced three weeks ago that starting this fall, it will provide students with free textbooks for each of their courses -- a program that President Sparky Reeves said he hopes will be paid for by tuition revenue brought in by additional students."

Very cool. Maybe a paradigmatic case.

And we need more college presidents named Sparky.

"Daytona State College, a fifty-three year old former community college, now a state college offering four year degree, has a very seriously embarked upon the task of greatly reducing the cost of higher education via the replacement of traditional textbooks with a number of textbook alternatives, to include e-textbooks. Our faculty and administration are equally as passionate about solving this "student access limiting" issue. Many of the College's students pay more for textbooks than they pay for tuition and fees."

" three different institutions are adopting a solution that is far kinder to students' wallets. Robert Morris University, in Pennsylvania, the University of Texas at San Antonio, and Patrick Henry College, in Virginia, have all started a textbook reserve -- essentially a library from which students can borrow required texts."

"Advocates for open-license textbooks in higher education, while largely unhappy with Apple's new iBooks 2 platform, say the technology behemoth has done a favor for their movement: Apple's pricey, limiting approach to digital textbooks is in stark contrast to the textbook model that aims for low-cost or free college texts."

"A typical college student spends up to $1,000 per year on textbooks, and many students don't buy textbooks at all because they're too expensive. E-textbooks can cost up to 50 percent less than standard textbooks while providing the foundation for integration of multiple learning resources into a single delivery system. E-textbooks and their enhanced interactive learning resources also have the potential to accelerate student learning."

Joseph Esposito looks at different textbook reform strategies, including cutting costs via "industrial engineering" (FlatWorld), crowdsourcing, multimedia, gaming, platform, and social network. Suggests that innovation will occur at community colleges and for-profits, where faculty has less power in choosing textbook.

"Students spend an average of $900 a year on textbooks-20 percent of tuition at an average university and half of tuition at a community college. Textbook prices have increased at four times the rate of inflation since 1994 and continue to rise."