While digital technology in some form now permeates most conventional campus-based courses the truth is that textbooks remain a fixture of the higher education landscape. Moreover, rising textbook costs are an often unspoken reality of the student learning experience, particularly in North America. Less is know about the costs and usage of textbooks in Europe and more specifically the emergence and potential impact of openly licensed digital books. This study seeks to address this gap in the literature, with a particular focus on the Irish higher education context. Framed around five overarching research questions the research aims to (a) complete an environmental scan and national baseline survey of open digital textbooks Ireland; and (b) undertake a micro-level institutional case study of current practice around the use of textbooks and adoption of open digital textbooks more particularly. The wider objective of this line of research is to help inform and eventually develop or at least pilot an Irish open digital textbook initiative. Although the study is still at an early stage in the research process a critical perspective anchors and guides the work as we seek to better understand the transformative advantages of open digital textbooks. Put another way the longer-term intention is to go beyond efforts to merely replace traditional print-based textbooks with cheaper and more accessible open digital learning resources, as we wish to challenge the basic conception of the student as the audience of such materials.