On June 28, 2015 at the ALA Annual Conference in San Francisco, I attended the session “Open Classrooms, Open Libraries: Academic library services supporting the creation and use of open education resources.” This session included two presentations.

The first presentation was titled “The Open Textbook Network: Libraries Working Together to Advance Open Textbooks” and the presenter was Sarah Faye Cohen, Managing Director of the Open Textbook Network at the University of Minnesota. Cohen explained that the network originated because one of the biggest barriers to instructors adopting open textbooks is the fact that they don’t know where to find them and how to evaluate them. The Open Textbook Library attempts in part to solve this problem. The library aims to provide a complete catalog of open textbooks along with reviews from faculty. It currently contains 178 textbooks and 204 reviews. Since going live in 2012, traffic on the Open Textbook Library website has steadily increased.

The Open Textbook Library is maintained by the Open Textbook Network. Through Hewlett Foundation funding, this network partners with academic institutions to promote the adoption of open textbooks. Currently, about 20 universities participate. There is a one-time fee of $5,000 for participation and institutions must also pay certain fees to some of their faculty in order to incentivize use of open textbooks. The network provides on-site training that aims to engage faculty in the value of open textbooks, particularly emphasizing the issue of affordability for students. According to Cohen, 39 percent of faculty who attend the network-provided on-site training eventually adopt an open textbook for a class that they teach. She said that future plans for the network include developing strategies for scaling up their operations and better assessing the impacts of the adoption of open textbooks. They will also be releasing a new website later this summer.

The second presentation was titled “Open/Alternative Textbook Initiatives at Kansas State University” and the presenter was Beth Turtle, Scholarly Communications Librarian at Kansas State. Turtle explained that an important point of origin for KSU’s initiatives was the interest that two faculty members had in creating open textbooks. After creating such textbooks, they became advocates for their colleagues to develop similar resources and they requested that the KSU Libraries assist in their advocacy. This request resulted in a pilot project with funding from both the university’s Student Governance Organization ($80,000) and the KSU Libraries ($20,000). Subsequently, this initial funding was replaced with funding that the provost has agreed to provide ($50,000 this year and another $50,000 next year).

The goal of the initiative is to save students money and to lead a transformation in textbook models from ones in which students must purchase these materials to models in which the materials are openly available. Additionally, they wish to facilitate the development of materials that will lead to enhanced teaching and learning. Ultimately, they would like for every freshman and sophomore class to use an open/alternative textbook.

The initiative promotes a related set of efforts. These efforts include the development of open textbooks, the adoption of existing open textbooks, the creation of OER models, and the integration of library-licensed content into course curriculum. They have been targeting low-level high-enrollment courses that are frequently taught. Since the spring of 2013, they have awarded 32 stipends (ranging from $2,000 to $5,000) to KSU instructors for the development of open/alternative educational resources. The stipends have impacted about 11,000 students in 38 courses. They estimate the savings to students to be at least one million dollars.

In working with instructors on the development of alternative and open textbooks, Turtle stressed that mentoring is important; while some instructors have clear plans, others are not sure how to get started or may lose track of their efforts as other priorities arise. When an instructor receives a stipend, half of it is paid up front and the other half is paid after the completion of the project. Additionally, they work with instructors to connect them with the expertise that they need, including experts on copyright, instructional design, accessibility. Each spring, all stipend recipients meet together to discuss their efforts and share their successes and problems.

KSU Libraries has recently begun formally assessing its efforts so far to promote the adoption of open/alternative textbooks. The assessment has included student surveys and interviews with instructors. The student survey results indicate that students are somewhat satisfied with the open/alternative textbooks that have been developed. Their biggest reason for supporting these materials is the savings that they offer and their biggest concern is that some students prefer to learn using a hardcopy. Students were strongly supportive of the continuation of the KSU Libraries’ initiative.