Sciences and Technology Open Resources: A Collaborative Effort Between Libraries and Faculty
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7710/1093-7374.1949Keywords:
Oregon, Oregon libraries, academic library, libraries, librarians, northwest, information science, information literacy, social media, writing, library trends, books, donors, library funding, Oregon library association, quarterly, Oregon library association quarterly, American library association, ala, ola, reading, library success, success, evolving roles, OSU, Oregon state, University, web services, public, new discipline, changes in libraries, career, careers, library careers, library career, professional journal, scholarly, academic, circulation, Portland, Multnomah County Library, innovative, inventive, solution, oregon librarians, librarian, oer, open educational resources, textbook, affordability, access, student, opportunities, challenges, impact, Jaqueline ray, Adelaide Clark, Dawn Lowe-Wincentsen, oregon tech, wilsonville, klamath falls, cost, budget, social justice, advocate, equity, publishing, minimum, wage, openstax, libretext, science, chemistry, creation, attribution, curriculum, ted, fuse, feedback, blackboard, open, text, adobe, latex, html, grant, savings, bookstoreAbstract
Open Oregon Educational Resources (2018) researched the changes open educational resources have had on textbook affordability in community colleges in Oregon between 2015 and 2017. One comparison in the report is the number of hours a student working minimum wage would need to work to afford course materials. In 2017, at a two-year college that was 176 hours of work. While similar data is not yet available for Oregon four-year universities, one may assume it is near to double or more, topping 300 hours of work.
Open access is in relation to the license type of a text or material. A copyright license such as Creative Commons attribution allows people to use materials without the traditional barriers of the publishing industry. Add to this the wide accessibility of the internet, and there is a new model for creating and sharing of information that many can use. For the Oregon Institute of Technology (Oregon Tech), this does not only mean easier access for students across socioeconomic barriers, but also the ability of the library to publish materials created by faculty, and for faculty to work with other services such as OpenStax and LibreText to publish materials on a larger scale. This paper seeks to provide two views of the process at Oregon Tech. First, the library sponsored a pilot to support use and creation of open materials. Second, the paper gives one faculty member’s experience in the creation and use of such resources.
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