ZTCs @ LAMC

Open textbooks can be defined as "textbooks that have been funded, published, and licensed to be freely used, adapted, and distributed." Typically open textbooks are available as a pdf, epub, or set of html pages that are available at no cost to students and instructors.

True open textbooks are licensed so that they can be freely printed, distributed, and even adapted with correct attribution. Vendors like Amazon and Lulu may be able to provide print copies of open texts, and they can be printed locally as well.

    

 

If you're looking for OER that are packaged for use, OpenStax by Rice University is a good place to start. OpenStax specializes in creating materials for general education courses like Biology 101, Introduction to Sociology, and Calculus I-III. All textbooks have been peer-reviewed and vetted by the higher education community.

These books are openly licensed, meaning that you as an instructor can modify a book for your own course, if you so choose. Modifications, like added text, links, and videos, will show in a version that you create specifically for your class. OpenStax updates their textbooks over time and pairs each book with lists of added resources like slides and exercises that you can use in class. Some of these added resources are free while others are available for a fee.

   

The libraries are part of a huge network that provides not just single textbooks, but an infinitely large library through which new texts can be developed & shared. Always up to date, the Libretexts platform ensures consistency, the newest info available, and allows instructors to fine-tune a project for their needs. Not only is LibreTexts always accessible online, LibreTexts is promoting assistive technologies across the entire platform.

   

Textbooks in the Open Textbook Library are considered open because they are free to use and distribute, and are licensed to be freely adapted or changed with proper attribution. All content in Open Textbook are openly licensed, must be a complete textbook that is available as a portable file, must be in use at multiple higher education institutions, or affiliated with a higher education institution, scholarly society, or professional organization, and must be an original textbook.

   

Luminos is the University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program for monographs. With the same high standards for selection, peer review, production, and marketing as our traditional program, Luminos is a transformative model, built as a partnership where costs and benefits are shared. Open Access offers the potential to exponentially increase the visibility and impact of scholarly work by making it globally accessible and freely available in digital formats. Costs are covered upfront through subventions, breaking down barriers of access at the other end—for libraries and for individual readers anywhere in the world. Open Access provides our framework for preserving and reinvigorating monograph publishing for the future.