Montana Board of Regents prepare for lean legislative session in 2019 - KEILA SZPALLER, Missoulian

Pamela Benjamin, a coordinator with TRAILS, or the Treasure State Academic Information and Library Services, said the cost of textbooks has become untenable for students, and a 2014 study showed an estimated 65 percent of students will forego textbooks. "That is not good," Benjamin said. "This is a problem not just for the students, but for student success and those institutions that are trying to support that success." TRAILS is a shared service that leverages buying power to purchase journals and databases, and Benjamin said it's positioned to support free online access to learning materials, or "Open Educational Resources." She said an estimated 82 percent of students said they would do "significantly better" with free online textbooks. http://missoulian.com/news/local/montana-board-of-regents-prepare-for-lean-legislative-session-in/article_681c191a-99fb-557a-b0ac-121b31c2dc2d.html