Proponents of Open Educational Resources (OER) point to numerous ways that a new approach to thinking about teaching and learning can break down barriers, making education accessible, available, and affordable to all. Digitized educational material that can be used, reused, translated, customized, and shared by faculty, students, and researchers in a variety of ways provide the impetus for the OER movement. Just as Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) offer a promise of reducing the overall costs of education, open textbooks present another. College students have long complained about the exorbitant prices of required texts, with several reports indicating that students currently spend approximately $1,000 per year on these books. It is these prices that propel students into academic libraries every term, seeking copies that can be borrowed rather than bought. There, they discover that libraries do not generally purchase commercial textbooks because they take up space, they change every term, and they are expensive. Open textbooks may now offer some relief. This article presents a selection of literature surrounding OERs, open textbooks, and the role libraries may (or may not) play in the current landscape.