What is a good reason to change calculus texts?

Reason #1: the text you're currently using costs money.

Reason #2: your current text uses an online homework system such as MyMathLab that costs money, rather than a free one like WeBWorK.

Some good free texts:

Robbin and Angenent - http://www.math.wisc.edu/undergraduate/calculus-instructors-page

Boelkins - http://faculty.gvsu.edu/boelkinm/Home/Open_Calculus.html

Keisler - http://www.math.wisc.edu/~keisler/calc.html

I'm currently using my own spin-off of Robbin and Angenent.

Picking a text based on cost may seem like putting the cart before the horse, but in fact the commercial texts are all very much alike, and although the free ones show a little more individuality, what you're still getting is basically a freshman calc book.

It's also worth carefully considering the assumption that the department must adopt a single text. The only good reason for this is economic: students need to be able to sell back their books, you want there to be a used market, and the bookstore may want the option of holding on to unsold copies rather than having to ship them back. But none of these economic reasons holds if you're using a free text. For example, nothing bad happens if your department decides to recommend to all faculty that they use either Larson (commercial) or a free text of their choice. A simple desire for uniformity is not a valid reason to force everyone to use the same book. This is an academic freedom issue. If someone can't be trusted to pick their own book, then that person isn't qualified to teach the course in the first place.

What is a good reason to change calculus texts?

Reason #1: the text you're currently using costs money.

Reason #2: your current text uses an online homework system such as MyMathLab that costs money, rather than a free one like WeBWorK.

Some good free texts:

Robbin and Angenent - http://www.math.wisc.edu/~angenent/Free-Lecture-Notes/

Boelkins - http://faculty.gvsu.edu/boelkinm/Home/Open_Calculus.html

Keisler - http://www.math.wisc.edu/~keisler/calc.html

I'm currently using my own spin-off of Robbin and Angenent.

Picking a text based on cost may seem like putting the cart before the horse, but in fact the commercial texts are all very much alike, and although the free ones show a little more individuality, what you're still getting is basically a freshman calc book.

It's also worth carefully considering the assumption that the department must adopt a single text. The only good reason for this is economic: students need to be able to sell back their books, you want there to be a used market, and the bookstore may want the option of holding on to unsold copies rather than having to ship them back. But none of these economic reasons holds if you're using a free text. For example, nothing bad happens if your department decides to recommend to all faculty that they use either Larson (commercial) or a free text of their choice. A simple desire for uniformity is not a valid reason to force everyone to use the same book. This is an academic freedom issue. If someone can't be trusted to pick their own book, then that person isn't qualified to teach the course in the first place.