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Open Educational & Open Access Resources: OER Textbooks

OER Textbook Collections

Books and collections of books written specifically as textbooks. An open textbook is an integrated course-associated learning tool that is in the public domain or has been open-licensed by the copyright holder to permit re-use without the necessity of asking permission of the copyright holder. Some material is modifiable by the user for order and topic coverage. Some business models allow free or low cost online textbooks with a charge for printed or extended materials.

Find OER Textbooks via OneSearch

You can find OER textbooks from OpenStax, Open Textbook Library, and Open SUNY via OneSearch, the library's online catalog. Follow these steps:

  • Go to the Library home page and use the Search Everything tab to enter your keywords and then click Search:

Step 1: Search everything

  • Next, in the "Refine by" menu on the left-hand side, under Availability, select Open Access and under Resource Type select Books, and then click on Apply Filters:

Step2: Refine results

  • Browse through the results to find OER textbooks online!

OER Resource Collections in Canvas Commons

A search of "CVC" in the Canvas Commons will show you the CVC-OEIs OpenStax resources. Additionally, a search for "ASCCC" will show you resources that the ASCCC OERI Initiative is adding to the Commons. You can import a Commons resource directly into a Canvas course shell - where its contents will be added to whatever is already in the course. The only elements that the new content will override will be the image in the Canvas dashboard and the licensing indicated on the Frontpage.

Searching for OER via Google

Do a general OER search using Google Advanced Search and filter your results by “Usage Rights” (pull-down menu at the bottom of the screen). Filter by usage rights rights "Free to use, share or modify" and/or "Free to use, share or modify, even commercially."

Google OER search