Spreading the Word, Building a Community: Vision for a National Librarian OER Movement

Abstract

I have worked as a reference librarian, distance education librarian, collection development librarian, interlibrary loan librarian, and most recently as an Access Services librarian, during my career. in MY SPAre TiMe: I like to garden. FAvoriTe BooKS: Cookbooks. HoW/WHere do i See THe indUSTrY in Five YeArS: I see academic libraries moving increasingly toward utilizing library staff to provide basic, core library services and to keep buildings open longer to provide students with study spaces, while reference librarians realign their work into niche research services. Libraries will continue to purchase more digital resources, which will result in fewer unique collections, while at the same time researchers will continue to demand access to increasingly scarce "unique" or current items.

Incentivizing OER adoption with course development mini-grants

“…This is consistent with the challenges Allen and colleagues present in relation to redesigning a course and moving from a traditional textbook to only OER materials (2014). Overall, the faculty assessment responses support the notion that academic progress in a course is impeded when students lack access to assigned foundational materials Allen et al, 2014;Bell & Salem, 2017).…”

“…A large portion of the comments provided highlighted cost savings and convenience of OER. Students also noted the increased integration of OER textbook content into class lectures and discussions, mirroring the reports of Allen et al (2014). On the whole, student and faculty responses fell into five major categories: student preparedness, cost, quality of content, perceived student stress relating to course materials, and student engagement with course materials.…”

“…This cumulative knowledge and reputation can be leveraged to effectively speak in favor of OER on academic campuses. As Allen et al (2014) denote, "many librarians are finding themselves wellsuited to assisting instructors with the OER curation process: helping them find, aggregate, and assess the quality of relevant materials from a broad array of sources" (p. 12). This assistance can offset the intensity many faculty face in migrating from traditional textbooks to OER (Allen et al, 2014).…”

“…Many institutions are at least dabbling with pilots projects to reduce the financial burden of textbooks. The OER environment is growing toward maturity; however, as Allen et al (2014) highlight, redesigning a course, moving from the traditional textbook to using only OER materials is a challenging prospect.…”

“…They also highlight implied student perceptions regarding the lack of professorial references in class discussions to material from the textbook. Lack of student access to foundational material assigned by the professor impedes progress for students without the textbook Allen et al, 2014;Bell & Salem, 2017).…”