California governor signs bills to make textbooks lighter on wallets and backpacks

The younger generations may one day never need to lug around heavy and expensive textbooks for their classes. California Governor Jerry Brown signed two bills yesterday that will fund the creation of 50 open source digital textbooks and will launch the California Open Source Digital Library to host them. The law could help bring down the ballooning expenses of college for students and their families.

The 50 titles will be selected by the California Open Education Resources Council. The group will pick the textbooks from public, post-secondary classes, then collect bids for the creation of those materials as digital books in 2013. The law requires that the digital titles be protected under Creative Commons licenses, which means they can be accessed and used by teachers or students outside of California. The state's public universities have produced some impressive feats of science and ingenuity, so this push for digital textbooks will be watched closely by other educators.

It was a busy few days for Governor Brown, who also signed legislation yesterday that prevents employers from demanding access to their workers' social media accounts. Earlier this week, he signed a bill allowing self-driving cars on the California streets.

[Image credit: Vincent Li]

This article was written by Anna Washenko and originally appeared on Tecca

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