Collections Management Librarian Arielle Vaverka and West Library Director Elizabeth Howard have been working to convince faculty to use textbooks and resources that are open educational resources. 

These resources are free for faculty and students to use. 

“Open education resources are basically any resources that don’t have a pay wall, that can be used for education,” Vaverka said. “There’s a movement to make things more accessible to people.” 

There are already faculty members using open educational resources, including the history, mass communication, psychology and chemistry departments.  

“We know faculty are interested in wanting to help students and make their courses more accessible,” Howard said. 

“We’ve been trying to get movement on campus for a while to do this project, and there’s been some success,” Howard said. 

“I think open resources would be a great idea,” first-year sociology major Mariah Perez said. “I know many classmates who have yet to buy their textbook because they have to pay for it. School is already expensive enough, so it would definitely help us as students out.” 

To learn more about open educational resources, please reach out to Howard at [email protected], or Vaverka at [email protected].