I 
114TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 6204 
To amend section 262 of the Museum and Library Services Act to authorize 
the Director of the Institute of Museum and Library Service to award 
grants to institutions of higher education for courses that use only 
publicly available digital resources for required reading assignments, and 
for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 28, 2016 
Mr. FOSTER introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Education and the Workforce 
A BILL 
To amend section 262 of the Museum and Library Services 
Act to authorize the Director of the Institute of Museum 
and Library Service to award grants to institutions of 
higher education for courses that use only publicly avail-
able digital resources for required reading assignments, 
and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘No Cost Educational 
Resources Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. GRANTS. 
Section 262 of the Museum and Library Services Act 
(20 U.S.C. 9162) is amended— 
(1) in subsection (a)— 
(A) in the matter preceding paragraph 
(1)— 
(i) by striking ‘‘nationwide and to’’ 
and inserting ‘‘nationwide, to’’; and 
(ii) by inserting ‘‘, and to provide 
funding for open educational reading mate-
rial courses’’ after ‘‘museums’’; 
(B) in paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘and’’ at 
the end; 
(C) in paragraph (4), by striking the pe-
riod at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 
(D) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(5) facilitating the adoption, adaption, and 
creation of open educational reading materials, and 
establishing more open educational reading material 
courses, pursuant to subsection (d).’’; 
(2) in subsection (c), by striking ‘‘The Direc-
tor’’ and inserting ‘‘Except as provided in subsection 
(d), the Director’’; and 
(3) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(d) OPEN
EDUCATIONAL
READING
MATERIAL 
COURSES.— 
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‘‘(1) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this sec-
tion: 
‘‘(A) The term ‘open educational reading 
material’ means a free digital text that is pub-
licly available to be downloaded and redistrib-
uted. 
‘‘(B) The term ‘open educational reading 
material course’ means a science, technology, 
engineering, or math course offered by an insti-
tution of higher education that uses only open 
educational reading materials as the form of the 
required readings for the course. 
‘‘(2) APPLICATION.—To receive a grant under 
subsection (a)(5), an institution of higher education 
shall submit to the Director an application that in-
cludes— 
‘‘(A) a description of how the institution of 
higher education— 
‘‘(i) plans to facilitate the adoption, 
adaption, and creation of open educational 
reading materials by assigning leadership 
of the grant implementation to library ad-
ministrators and librarians; 
‘‘(ii) has collaborated with science, 
technology, engineering, and mathematics 
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department faculty in developing the appli-
cation and plans to continue to collaborate 
with such faculty in implementing the 
grant projects; and 
‘‘(iii) plans to collaborate with other 
institutions of higher education to facilitate 
the wider adoption, adaption, and creation 
of open educational reading materials 
throughout the higher education commu-
nity; and 
‘‘(B) a plan to review the quality of the 
open educational reading materials used at such 
institution of higher education. 
‘‘(3) PRIORITY.—In awarding grants under 
subsection (a)(5), the Director shall give priority to 
an institution of higher education that— 
‘‘(A) enrolls a high number of low-income 
or minority students, or both; and 
‘‘(B) plans— 
‘‘(i) to assign a member of the faculty 
and a librarian to coordinate the imple-
mentation of open educational reading ma-
terial courses; 
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‘‘(ii) to use library resources to facili-
tate the use of open educational reading 
materials; 
‘‘(iii) to use open educational reading 
materials as the form of the required read-
ings for science, technology, engineering, 
and mathematics courses with high enroll-
ment; and 
‘‘(iv) to provide incentives for faculty 
to use only open educational reading mate-
rials as the form of the required readings 
for their courses, such as monetary awards 
or dedicated work time to adopt, adapt, or 
create such materials. 
‘‘(4) REPORT.—Not later than 2 years after the 
date on which the first grant is awarded under sub-
section (a)(5), the Director shall submit to Congress 
a report that includes— 
‘‘(A) the number of grants awarded under 
subsection (a)(5); 
‘‘(B) an evaluation of the effect of such 
grants on increasing the number of science, 
technology, 
engineering, 
and 
mathematics 
courses using open educational reading mate-
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rials as the form of required readings for such 
courses; and 
‘‘(C) an evaluation of the amount of money 
saved by students who enroll in open edu-
cational reading material courses in comparison 
to students who enroll in similar courses with 
required readings that are only available by 
purchase.’’. 
Æ 
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