LibGuides: Open Educational & Open Access Resources: OER Textbooks

Textbooks

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.

BCcampus Open Textbooks
A curated collection of open textbooks that align with the top 40 highest enrolled 1st and 2nd year post-secondary subject areas in British Columbia.
Bookshelf « Saylor.org
Textbooks associated with Saylor.org courses. Under various open licenses.
HippoCampus
High school and early college level multimedia textbooks, indexed by topic as well as by book. Instructors can adopt textbooks for specific classes.
MERLOT Open Textbooks
Textbooks specifically designated for free use. MERLOT also has tutorials, lesson plans, and other educational resources. Registration required to access full site.
O'Reilly Open Books Project
Computer and technology related books from the publisher of the "animals" computer programming books. Not all the books on the site are free.
OpenStax
As an educational initiative at Rice University that provides peer-reviewed, openly licensed college textbooks that are absolutely free online and low cost in print.
Open Textbook Library (University of Minnesota)
In an effort to reduce costs for students, the UM College of Education and Human Development has created this catalog of open textbooks to be reviewed by faculty members. They can be downloaded at no charge or printed at the cost of printing.
Smarthistory
Textbooks on art history.
WikiBooks
Completely open and free textbooks on a wide variety of subjects. There are no qualifications for creating/editing, so quality varies considerably, and many books are incomplete. This link is to the English collection, scroll to the bottom of the page for links to collections in other languages, and further Wikimedia projects.
Writing Spaces - Readings on Writing
Creative Commons licensed, peer-reviewed essay collections written by writing teachers for students.

Searching for OER via the Canvas Reading List, Google, and Creative Commons CC Search

1. Via the Reading List in Canvas

With the Reading List in Canvas, instructors can create digital course packs comprised of all types of materials, including print and electronic items from their library’s collections, Open Educational Resources, and other resources available on the web. The Library's discovery system includes multiple Open Access and OER collections – such as Open SUNY, OpenStax, and Open Textbook Library. Follow these steps to find OER and refer to the images below:

Click on the Add Items button in the Reading List..
Search in: Search Everything.
Enter your search terms.
Unselect "Include records without full-text access."
Click Search.
From your search results, select "Book" from Resource Type and "Open Access" from Availability.

To find out more about activating the Reading List in your Canvas course, contact your library liaison.

2. 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."

3. Via Creative Commons CC Search

Use the Creative Commons CC Search and limit by content you can Modify or adapt.