Open Educational Resources and Special Libraries: Librarian Roles in Reaping the Benefits of Open Licensing

Open Educational Resources (OER) are not just free online textbooks! OER in multiple forms expand access to high quality materials and broaden the potential for teaching and learning. For example, open licensing can give permission for students and faculty to use museums’ digital collections in their work, allow special libraries to adopt or adapt educational materials created by others into their programs, and invite the incorporation of underrepresented voices into the scholarly conversation. Librarians from all types of libraries have been fundamental players in open education because of their unique combination of skills: teaching, advocacy, strategic searching, and employing metadata to improve findability, and knowledge: instructional technology and copyright. This session will introduce the basics of OER, give examples of various ways librarians are participating, and talk about some open education trends, especially those related to humanities and special libraries.