New Access to Open Educational Resources

A book open on a marble table with bookshelves in the background

The UMKC Libraries have added new access points for Open Educational Resources (OER) to our library search. LibreTexts and Pressbooks Directory join our other OER collections in the UMKC library search:  

LibreTexts provides access to over 2,000 OER books created on their platform by instructional faculty covering a wide range of topics including STEM, humanities, K12 education, and workforce development. The LibreTexts team continually strives to ensure that both the quality and accessibility of their content meets the needs and standards of educators worldwide. To learn more, visit https://libretexts.org/

Pressbooks Directory provides access to over 5,000 books published by more than 140 colleges, universities, libraries, non-profits, presses, and other organizations using the Pressbooks open publishing platform. These open books cover a wide range of topics, including curated collections in areas such as language learning, healthcare, science, fine arts, indigenous voices, and more. The vast majority are freely available, openly licensed, and adaptable textbooks and college-level learning materials on academic subjects. To learn more, visit https://pressbooks.com/

B.C. Open Collection is a curated selection of open educational resources that can be accessed by educators in British Columbia, Canada and beyond to use in the classroom, in an institutional learning management system, or on other teaching and learning platforms. All materials are openly licensed. This means they are free to use, customize, and share. You can also browse materials here: https://collection.bccampus.ca/.

Milne Open Textbooks is a catalog of open textbooks authored and peer-reviewed by State University of New York faculty and staff; Milne Library Publishing at SUNY Geneseo manages and maintains Milne Open Textbooks. See https://milneopentextbooks.org/booktype/ost-books/  for a list of titles. 

Open Textbook Library is a curated finding aid for OER texts that includes faculty peer reviews of many titles. This collection has grown to over 1,200 titles in subject areas across the collegiate and community college level, including resources on student success. See https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks to browse by title or subject. 

OpenStax has been operating since 2012, creating peer-reviewed, openly-licensed textbooks, which are available in free digital formats and for a low cost in print. OpenStax books are currently being used in 60% of colleges and universities in the United States. For more information on subjects, titles, and faculty tools like LMS integration, test banks, and Powerpoint slides, see https://openstax.org/.

Library users can locate free and open publications from these providers by searching for a title in our Library Catalog + Articles search box. When searching by topic or keyword, results from these sources appear in library search results alongside traditionally published academic books and articles.  

UMKC instructors who want to assign the OERs they find using these collections can add links to open textbooks in your Canvas courses. Look for the Access URL or the Permalink. Copy one of those stable links and paste it into your Canvas course or syllabus.  

Indicates the on-screen location of access url and permalink

Do you have questions about using any of these collections? Ask a librarian!

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