Contributed by Justin Kani

As a librarian, and someone who has been a steadfast advocate of open educational resources (OER) for many years now, I find myself frequently approached by fellow faculty seeking information on where to locate quality OER materials.

Open Educational Resources are defined by UNESCO as “learning, teaching and research materials in any format and medium that reside in the public domain or are under copyright that have been released under an open license, that permit no-cost access, re-use, re-purpose, adaptation and redistribution by others.” The open license is often implemented through a Creative Commons attribution. 

Considering the expansive landscape of OER, I believe that libraries and librarians possess a unique advantage when addressing this inquiry. Our expertise in conducting reference interviews and skill in resource identification places us in a strong position to offer this service, a capability deeply ingrained in our practice. If you´re not a librarian, I would recommend searching to see if your university has a librarian that specializes in OER. 

In this post, I aim to spotlight two lesser-known resources that could greatly benefit faculty if they were more widely known. I want to start with IntechOpen. This peer-reviewed resource delves into areas within the sciences, medicine, and technology, and has been expanding into the social sciences and humanities. 

InTech’s coverage addresses a notable gap commonly found in these subjects, particularly as the content becomes progressively more technical, even though it is not in the form of traditional textbooks.

Search Strategies within IntechOpen: You can search for articles or books. At the time of this publication, to search for books: 

• You can click on the ‘Books’ link on the left. This tab categorizes the topics into four subsections: Physical Sciences, Engineering and Technology, Life Sciences, Health Sciences, and Social Sciences and Humanities. 

• When you choose one of these topics, you will then click on the area called ‘Open Access Books’; 

• This will take you to another page where the titles are broken down further by subject area. 

When analyzing a specific book, you will notice that its chapters are divided into downloadable sections. Usually, the Creative Commons license is attributed at the end of each chapter. While this may necessitate some research, the results can be exceedingly beneficial for individuals searching for resources with a more technical or advanced focus.

IntechOpen also provides an option to search for keywords using its search box. For example, when conducting a search for a topic such as dentistry, you will notice that the database provides supplementary search terms on the left-hand side. When it comes to searching, I typically incorporate this link into the resources I offer faculty members. It allows them to better gauge the extent of the resources they’re reviewing. 

The second resource is a well-known database: JSTOR.  JSTOR Open Access is a powerful tool for finding open-access books and journals (no subscription required). While navigating this resource requires attention to Creative Commons licenses, it boasts an astonishing repository of open-access materials from esteemed academic publishers across the globe.

Search strategies within JSTOR: 

• While you can search for Creative Commons licensed books and articles by using a keyword search, I find one of the easiest ways to find material in this resource is to download the title list of open-source books. 

• Within this CSV file, you can find important metadata including a permalink to the resource (called stable URL in the file) . 
• Like IntechOpen, you’ll need to find the Creative Commons (CC) licenses within the publication. Once in a publication, you’ll find the CC at the bottom left under ‘Terms and copyright’. 

Together, these resources exemplify quality, peer-reviewed content that can move our communities forward by empowering educators and highlighting access to quality open educational content.

Several other helpful OER resources to consider:

The Open Textbook Library: Known for its comprehensive collection of openly licensed textbooks, covering an array of subjects. This source is a favorite because it often includes comprehensive reviews by faculty in the same discipline. 

Pressbooks Directory: A platform that aids in the creation of OER, fostering customization and adaptability. Pressbooks is the most prominent tool for creating textbooks and their catalog becomes more robust every month. 

SUNY OER: The State University of New York offers a diverse selection of academic materials available for free or at minimal cost.

OpenStax: Renowned for its peer-reviewed, openly licensed textbooks primarily tailored for college and AP courses. While OpenStax doesn’t have the biggest collection of textbooks, what they have is done very professional. This resource also includes ancillary materials like quizzes which are sometimes missing from other OER resources. 

eCampus Ontario Open Library is a database that provides many resources in the OER space. It can sometimes be Canadian-focused. 

OER Commons comprehensive resource that includes search filters that allow you to search resources that include the areas of K-12 as college. 

References

UNESCO. (n.d). Open educational resources. 

https://www.unesco.org/en/open-educational-resources

This post is by Justin Kani. He is the Business and Economics Librarian at Weber State University, and a 2019-2020 graduate of the SPARC OER Leadership program.  This post  is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license, except where otherwise indicated. Please reference OER and Beyond and use this URL when attributing this work; for more information on licensing, see our Open Access Policy.