"Textbooks can put great strain on a student's budget. But students receiving financial aid at Williams College will soon be able to swipe their identification cards and get their books free," The New York Times reports. "The college has announced a new procedure, effective next February, by which students receiving financial assistance will have no out-of-pocket cost for textbooks. Under Williams's new system, with the scan of a school ID, costs will be assigned to a student's term bill, and those itemized costs will be paid directly by college grants. There is no spending limit: all books and reading packets corresponding to the courses in which a student is enrolled are covered."