Please note: This guide is in the process of being updated during Summer 2024. Check back soon for updates and visit our Open Educational Resources guide for additional information!
Defining Open Textbooks
What are open textbooks?
Open textbooks are a type of open educational resource (OER). OERs are "teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others" (Hewlett Foundation). In the case of OER, the term "open" usually means that an author has chosen to give others permissions to retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute copies of the content, which David Wiley calls the "5Rs of openness" (2014.)
Open textbooks are available for free online. The range of subject coverage and the number of publications is steadily increasing. Although open textbooks are born digital, students who prefer print books can print all pages themselves or request a printed and bound copy from the university bookstore or other retailer for a small fee (Senack, 2014).
Finding Open Textbooks
Where to Find Open Textbooks
- The Open Textbook LibrarySupported by the Open Textbook Network (University of Minnesota), the Open Textbook Library provides a list of open textbooks with faculty reviews.
- OpenStax CollegeA diverse repository with open textbooks in math, science, the social sciences, and the humanities. To find reviews, search the Open Textbook Library.
- BCCampus OpenEdIncludes over 150 open textbooks created, reviewed, and shared in a range of subject areas.
- OASIS: SUNY OER Search ToolThis search tool, developed by SUNY Geneseo’s Milne Library, searches open content from 110+ different sources.
Note: A Google search for [your subject] + open textbooks often yields results, too. Look for titles endorsed by an academic society, funded by a foundation or grant, or in use at a number of colleges or universities.
Where to Find Supplemental Materials
Slide decks, problem sets, videos, and other supplemental files may be available from OER collections, including:
- Mason OER MetafinderSimultaneously search OER repositories using a search tool from George Mason University Libraries. (You may want to un-check the HathiTrust collection for easier use.)
- OER CommonsAn extensive repository of open educational resources, including open textbooks, and a good source for finding supplementary materials.
- MERLOTMERLOT includes many types of open educational resources. To find open textbooks, use the Advanced Search to limit to Material Type: Open (Access) Textbook.
- Open Course LibraryA collection of educational materials intended to accompany courses, including activities and syllabi, started by the Washington Board of Education.
Find additional OER repositories/collections on this page of the portal.
About
About
This LibGuide was created in 2016 by Abbey Elder, Information Science graduate student, with the supervision of Rachel Caldwell, former Scholarly Communication Librarian at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. It is being updated during Summer 2024. For additional information about Open Educational Resources, please visit our OER Guide
Free to Reuse with Credit
Free to Reuse with Credit
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
You are free to reuse original material on this guide if you credit Rachel Caldwell and University of Tennessee Libraries; however, much of the information on this page comes from other sources. Check the permissions you need to reuse any material that comes from other sources.
Notice
The author of this page in not a lawyer and the information provided does not constitute legal advice.