Support Textbook Affordability
Information about Open Educational Resources, Course Reserves, and assigning library materials.
OER Metasearch
- Mason OER Metafinder (MOM)Search multiple OER repositories, including:
MERLOT
Oasis
OpenStax
Open Textbook Library
Library of Congress
Creative Commons Search Tool
This search tool allows you to find Creative Commons licensed material in Google and repositories including YouTube, Flickr, Wikimedia Commons, and others. Narrow your search by license type or by repository.
OER Repositories
- OpendoraOpendora is a digital archive for open educational resources that serves as a central repository for Minnesota State faculty and librarians to leverage licensed open educational resources (OER) with the ability to access, load, and share material.
- BCcampus Open Textbook ProjectThe BCcampus Open Textbook Project is an initiative in British Columbia that intends to provide open textbooks for the largest courses in the province.
- Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI)The Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI) is a non-profit consortium of law schools, law libraries and related organizations. Its publishing arm, eLangdell Press, publishes open and free casebooks on a range of legal topics relevant to first-year students.
- LuminosaLuminos is University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program for monographs.
- MERLOTMERLOT is a program of the California State University system that invites educators to share and review OER on the MERLOT website. Items submitted to MERLOT are vetted by teams of peer reviewers with subject-area expertise.
- MIT OpenCourseWareMIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) is a web-based publication of virtually all MIT course content. OCW is open and available to the world
- OASISOASIS currently searches open content from 97 different sources and contains 385,629 records. It is being developed at SUNY Geneseo's Milne Library.
- OER CommonsOER Commons allows you to search for open educational resources in a variety of types, educational levels, and subject areas. Try the Advanced Search option to locate textbooks released for college-level courses--or look for other materials to supplement texts.
- OpenStaxOpenStax 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. 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.
- Open SUNYThe Open SUNY Textbooks project provides funding and support to faculty members in the State University of New York who wish to publish open textbooks. Over a dozen textbooks have been published to date with more forthcoming.
- Open Textbook LibraryThe Open Education Network is based in the Center for Open Education in the University of Minnesota’s College of Education and Human Development
- Project GutenbergMost books in Project Gutenberg are not protected by copyright, so this is generally a place to check for older publications. Most books are in the public domain.
- Purdue e-PubsPurdue University Press is making available some of its older publications via Purdue e-Pubs. Books currently date from 1973 to 2006 and are freely accessible for non-commercial purposes.
- Teaching CommonsTeaching Commons pulls together OER published at a number of colleges and universities including Portland State University, University of Massachusetts, University of Pennsylvania, University of South Florida, the City University of New York, and Utah State University. To find open textbooks, select "textbooks" under "types of works."
- UC Press E-Books CollectionUC Press E-Books Collection, 1982-2004, includes almost 2,000 books from academic presses on a range of topics, including art, science, history, music, religion, and fiction.
- University of Pittsburgh Press Digital EditionsPitt Press has selected these digital editions for open access. The majority of these titles are out-of-print monographs published by the University of Pittsburgh Press between 1938 and 2004.
Google Search Tips
To find OER, look for advanced search options in the tools that you use. In Google, you can find advanced search under "settings." Look for "usage rights" once you've reached advanced search.
Similarly, in Google Images, look under "tools" for "usage rights." These tools allow you to narrow your search to find materials that you can modify or reuse.
OER Visual Media
Try a few of these sources when looking for videos, images, and media either licensed Creative Commons or in the public domain.
- ccMixterThis is a community music remixing site featuring remixes and samples licensed under Creative Commons licenses.
- Digital Public Library of AmericaDPLA allows you to access digital collections created by libraries, universities, and archives. Some are in the public domain but not all--check items individually.
- FlickrFlickr features many images licensed with Creative Commons
- The Internet ArchiveThe Internet Archive has a dedicated space for OER.
- JamendoJamendo users can share their music using Creative Common licenses.
- Library of Congress Digital CollectionsThe Library of Congress has made digitized versions of collection materials available online since 1994. Many (not all) materials are in the public domain.
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)Includes a filter for unrestricted images.
- NASA ImagesNASA content - images, audio, video, and computer files used in the rendition of 3-dimensional models, such as texture maps and polygon data in any format - generally are not copyrighted.
- National Science Digital LibraryThis library contains materials with an emphasis on STEM disciplines. Use the search engine to filter by "terms of use" to find OER.
- New York Public Library - Public Domain CollectionsMore than 180,000 of the items in NYPL's Digital Collections are in the public domain
- Open OsmosisOpen Osmosis is an initiative committed to developing & disseminating health education resources with the ultimate aim of making healthcare more accessible.
- The Periodic Table of Videos (University of Nottingham)The team behind this project created videos to accompany each of the elements on the periodic table.
- PHET Interactive SimulationsFree interactive math and science simulations provided via the University of Colorado, Boulder.
- Public Domain ReviewAll the historical works found on this site are in the public domain, at least somewhere in the world.
- Wikimedia Commons - Images"Wikimedia Commons only accepts free content... that [is] not subject to copyright restrictions which would prevent them being used by anyone, anytime, for any purpose."
- YouTubeThis is not a specific OER repository but some of the content is available for you to use freely under a Creative Commons license. Use the advanced search to select Creative Commons licensed content.
- Getty Open Content ProgramThe Getty recently started an Open Content Program to "share images of works of art in an unrestricted manner, freely, so that all those who create or appreciate art…will have greater access to high-quality digital images for their studies and projects." You can find these images by conducting a search on the Getty Search Gateway and then filtering your results by checking the box next to "Open Content Images", which is the second option in the Highlights section of the filters in the left menu. All images found through this program should be credited as "Digital image courtesy of the Getty's Open Content Program" (see http://www.getty.edu/about/opencontent.html).
