The Open Textbook Toolkit: Seeding Successful Partnerships for Collaboration between Academic Libraries and University Presses

Abstract

Abstract:Libraries and university presses coexist in a complex and increasingly consolidated scholarly communication ecosystem. Each brings different strengths, values, and viewpoints that can inform and enrich a joint project. In this paper we discuss potential barriers to and benefits of collaboration between academic libraries and university presses and introduce a case study of such a collaboration: the Open Textbook Toolkit. This project, funded by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, is currently investigating the components needed to support faculty in one discipline, psychology, who are considering adopting open educational resources. By leveraging both library and press expertise, the Toolkit represents one model for fruitful collaboration.

Innovation Opportunities for Academic Libraries to Support Teaching Through Open Education: A Case Study at TU Delft, The Netherlands

“…The role of the library should be especially prominent in the development of products and services that stimulate the overall adoption of OE practices by supporting the creation, adaptation, retention, and (re)distribution aspects of OER (Waller et al, 2017;Goodsett et al (2016). Assisting in publishing an open textbook is an example of such products and services.…”

“…Assisting in publishing an open textbook is an example of such products and services. Waller et al (2017) and Goodsett et al (2016) also indicate that other effective examples might include facilitating the evaluation of open resources that educators might use, conforming to licensing requirements when using these resources and curating the platforms where they can publish open resources. Academic libraries could also develop training for educators on how to use open resources in their educational practice and how to publish open resources themselves.…”

“…The creation of OER also involves publishing, which requires expertise that is not by default present in academic libraries. Publishing is based on collaborative work of several parties and libraries are appreciated as intermediaries between faculties, educators or other services like a university press (Waller, Cross, & Rigling, 2017). Examples of prerequisites and additional services that are in place or have been developed to facilitate publishing have been listed by Goodsett, Loomis, and Miles (2016).…”

Predictors of e-publishing adoption in environments of uncertainty

“…Several studies support the idea of collaboration as a method of penetrating the digital market and bridging the global digital divide (Wejnert, 2002; Dutta and Mia (2011). Wejnert argued that collaboration drives innovation and that when an innovation is in tune with existing cultural conditions, they are easily adopted.…”

“…The internet, which is a major enabling facility for digital publishing is essentially a networking system, which has become a tool for cross-cultural collaboration for publishers for whom collaboration has become a matter of survival (Waller et al , 2017). Wejnert (2002) argued that adoption of institutionalised practices often appears to be fashionable as soon as industry peers identify such practices as being modern, central and relevant to mainstream social evolution. She suggested that an actor in an industry would naturally imitate the adoptive behaviour of collaborating peers (Silva, 2012; Moreno and Suriñach, 2014).…”