49 SPEC Kit 351: Affordable Course Content and Open Educational Resources
administrative (and student) requests for assistance in these areas. I’d like to see liaisons trained to
assist faculty in finding open course materials.
Librarians and staff at research libraries can provide invaluable assistance with search strategies to
identify the most appropriate OERs. They can advise on rights issues for individuals who want to create
OERs. And they can offer cataloging expertise to better organize the already vast body of OERs and
make it easier for instructors to find exactly the right one at the point of need.
Libraries and librarians will expand their roles beyond knowledge of traditional publishing and
printing arenas to include depth of knowledge in Open Educational Resources general and subject
specific repositories. We will take a very active role in providing discovery tools for faculty to be
directed most efficiently to curricular materials available on the open web as well as providing
guidance in Creative Commons licensing newly created teaching materials. Libraries will also become
storehouses for locally produced open instructional materials open to all.
Libraries have an opportunity to lead in these areas and we should. We should be an active participant
in the research life of the university.
Libraries should participate in development of standards, business/funding models, and policies to
enable availability, integration, and accessibility of OER in formats that are most useful to teachers
and learners. Libraries should be a partner with other campus leaders in developing strategies and
programs to support OER services. In addition, libraries can provide skills and systems to support
discovery, authoring, licensing, publishing, and archiving of OER.
Libraries will become the central hub of content, with the Institutional Repository leading the way
to storing and providing access to that content. Services will also include the development of content
through research and collaboration.
Libraries will develop OER services in several ways. First, they will be advocates for the development
of OERs. Second, they will provide educational services to increase awareness of using OERs in the
classroom, both integration of OERs created elsewhere and locally created OERs. Finally, OERs will
become an important part of the portfolios of library publishing initiatives.
Libraries, along with bookstores, teaching and learning centers, and IT departments, will continue to
lead the way in providing these services.
Our future role in OERs is very similar to the answer above. In addition, we will provide expanding
outreach, education, and consultations related to content licensing, OER impact (i.e., metrics &usage),
as well as providing services around the life-cycle of OERs, including planning, production, versioning,
archiving, publishing, and preservation.
Our role will be working with faculty to identify, locate, procure, and integrate OERs into LMSs so
that students can have low-cost, convenient access to the research materials they need to succeed in
their courses.
Partner with faculty, the bookstore, and others to select and make content available, perhaps through
our IR. Also play an educational role in helping campus community understand their options.
Partnering with other campus units, advocating and educating instructional and teaching staff in open
access materials, providing assistance with copyright and other issues.
Potentially a hub/clearinghouse, or tied more closely to educational, instructional, and information
literacy design initiatives.
Providing assistance in locating and identifying OERs, copyright and licensing consultations, learning
object repository to host OERS.
Providing better ways to sort and search for OER. Providing clear guidance on publishing OER.
administrative (and student) requests for assistance in these areas. I’d like to see liaisons trained to
assist faculty in finding open course materials.
Librarians and staff at research libraries can provide invaluable assistance with search strategies to
identify the most appropriate OERs. They can advise on rights issues for individuals who want to create
OERs. And they can offer cataloging expertise to better organize the already vast body of OERs and
make it easier for instructors to find exactly the right one at the point of need.
Libraries and librarians will expand their roles beyond knowledge of traditional publishing and
printing arenas to include depth of knowledge in Open Educational Resources general and subject
specific repositories. We will take a very active role in providing discovery tools for faculty to be
directed most efficiently to curricular materials available on the open web as well as providing
guidance in Creative Commons licensing newly created teaching materials. Libraries will also become
storehouses for locally produced open instructional materials open to all.
Libraries have an opportunity to lead in these areas and we should. We should be an active participant
in the research life of the university.
Libraries should participate in development of standards, business/funding models, and policies to
enable availability, integration, and accessibility of OER in formats that are most useful to teachers
and learners. Libraries should be a partner with other campus leaders in developing strategies and
programs to support OER services. In addition, libraries can provide skills and systems to support
discovery, authoring, licensing, publishing, and archiving of OER.
Libraries will become the central hub of content, with the Institutional Repository leading the way
to storing and providing access to that content. Services will also include the development of content
through research and collaboration.
Libraries will develop OER services in several ways. First, they will be advocates for the development
of OERs. Second, they will provide educational services to increase awareness of using OERs in the
classroom, both integration of OERs created elsewhere and locally created OERs. Finally, OERs will
become an important part of the portfolios of library publishing initiatives.
Libraries, along with bookstores, teaching and learning centers, and IT departments, will continue to
lead the way in providing these services.
Our future role in OERs is very similar to the answer above. In addition, we will provide expanding
outreach, education, and consultations related to content licensing, OER impact (i.e., metrics &usage),
as well as providing services around the life-cycle of OERs, including planning, production, versioning,
archiving, publishing, and preservation.
Our role will be working with faculty to identify, locate, procure, and integrate OERs into LMSs so
that students can have low-cost, convenient access to the research materials they need to succeed in
their courses.
Partner with faculty, the bookstore, and others to select and make content available, perhaps through
our IR. Also play an educational role in helping campus community understand their options.
Partnering with other campus units, advocating and educating instructional and teaching staff in open
access materials, providing assistance with copyright and other issues.
Potentially a hub/clearinghouse, or tied more closely to educational, instructional, and information
literacy design initiatives.
Providing assistance in locating and identifying OERs, copyright and licensing consultations, learning
object repository to host OERS.
Providing better ways to sort and search for OER. Providing clear guidance on publishing OER.
