POTSDAM – A SUNY Potsdam professor is among the first to have a textbook available through a new Open SUNY Textbooks program that is available to anyone for free.

Anthropology Professor Susan Stebbins’s book, "Native Peoples of North America," presents prehistoric, historic and contemporary information for anthropology students.

The State University of New York recently announced that the system's first two Open SUNY Textbooks have hit the virtual bookshelves, and are now available to students and anyone else for free.

"Open SUNY Textbooks will cut costs for our students while enhancing the quality of the textbooks used in some of SUNY's most popular electives and majors, while also allowing our faculty to reach a world-wide audience with their expert work," said SUNY Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher.

The impact on college bookstores was not discussed in the news release from SUNY in Albany.

"Dr. Stebbins is ahead of the curve on the kind of project that will support Open SUNY, help students by providing a more affordable higher education, and promote a better, more sustainable information environment for libraries, students, faculty and researchers, regardless of campus affiliation," said SUNY Potsdam Director of Libraries Jenica P. Rogers.

Open SUNY Textbooks will be a key component of Open SUNY, which will expand access to online courses in the 64-campus system, in part in the belief that it will improve completion rates among students while also offering fully online degree opportunities. Open SUNY, which will be launched in early 2014.

The other book released this month was "Literature, the Humanities and Humanity," written by SUNY Fredonia Distinguished Teaching Professor Ted Steinberg.

To download Dr. Stebbins' book and find out more about Open SUNY, visit opensuny.org/omp/index.php/SUNYOpenTextbooks.