Open textbooks are part of a larger movement called "Open Educational Resources" (OER Background)
An open textbook is a textbook with an open copyright license that allows the material to be freely accessed, shared and adapted.
Open licenses allow instructors to adapt, remix, or customize existing open textbooks to maximize instructional content to meet their own learning objectives
Many open textbooks are developed through traditional peer review, others are vetted by experts. As with any textbook, the instructor is the final judge of whether an open textbook meets the needs of the course.
They are free for anyone to view and download in an online format and can be made available in a print format at a nominal cost.
The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition is an international alliance of academic and research libraries working to create a more open system of scholarly communication.