The ϡȱ (ϡȱ) has received a two-year planning grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), a federal agency charged with advancing, supporting, and empowering America’s museums, libraries, and related organizations through grantmaking, research, and policy development.
The ϡȱ grant, which will be led by the ϡȱ William E. Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation and ϡȱ and Affiliated Institutions Library Consortium (ϡȱAI), will articulate the role of academic libraries and library consortia in increasing the relevance of open educational resources (OER) through OER localization, defined as the practices and partnerships necessary to increase the relevance of OER for differing student populations, student learning needs, faculty interests, and institutional and community contexts.
The ϡȱ grant of $149,877 comes under the IMLS National Leadership Grants for Libraries program, which supports projects of national impact that address significant challenges and opportunities facing the library and archives fields and have the potential to advance theory and practice with new tools, research findings, models, services, practices, or alliances that will be widely used.
“Our goal is to develop a framework that can be used across academic library and consortial contexts to position these entities as leaders in and supporters of OER localization,” said Nancy O’Neill, Acting Director of the Kirwan Center and co-PI for the grant. “This work fits squarely within the NLG program mission, and we are delighted that we will have the opportunity to engage with library colleagues nationally and across ϡȱ in the process.”
Out of 118 NLG program proposals submitted this year, only 33 projects were funded, among them the ϡȱ planning grant.
In addition to advancing the field of OER from a narrow focus on cost savings toward a broader commitment to equity and student success, the ϡȱ project also intends to spur national dialogue about the roles that academic libraries and consortia can play in contributing to student success through the development and sustained support of relevant, constituency-oriented instructional materials and practices.
“Libraries and their consortia are playing very active roles in the proliferation and success of Open Educational Resources,” said Andrew K. Pace, Executive Director of the ϡȱAI Library Consortium and co-PI for the grant. “We’re excited to help frame the importance of localizing these efforts and to clarify the important role for libraries and consortia within the larger open education and open scholarship ecosystem.”
This grant project is the latest initiative to come under the umbrella of the ϡȱ Open Source Textbook Initiative (M.O.S.T.)., which supports long-term, statewide scaling and sustainability of open educational resources (OER) to increase access, affordability, and achievement for ϡȱ higher education students across community colleges and private and public four-year institutions. The ϡȱ Kirwan Center leads M.O.S.T. in partnership with the ϡȱ Association of Community Colleges, the ϡȱ Independent College and University Association, ϡȱOnline, and most recently, ϡȱAI. Since 2014, M.O.S.T. has enabled faculty teaching 197 courses at 28 institutions across ϡȱ to switch to OER, resulting in more than $20.6 million in cumulative textbook cost savings for students.
Additional information about the ϡȱ William E. Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation can be found .
Additional information about ϡȱ and Affiliated Institutions Library Consortium can be found .
Additional information on the ϡȱ Open Source Textbook Initiative can be found .
The ϡȱ (ϡȱ) has received a two-year planning grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), a federal agency charged with advancing, supporting, and empowering America’s museums, libraries, and related organizations through grantmaking, research, and policy development.
The ϡȱ grant, which will be led by the ϡȱ William E. Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation and ϡȱ and Affiliated Institutions Library Consortium (ϡȱAI), will articulate the role of academic libraries and library consortia in increasing the relevance of open educational resources (OER) through OER localization, defined as the practices and partnerships necessary to increase the relevance of OER for differing student populations, student learning needs, faculty interests, and institutional and community contexts.
The ϡȱ grant of $149,877 comes under the IMLS National Leadership Grants for Libraries program, which supports projects of national impact that address significant challenges and opportunities facing the library and archives fields and have the potential to advance theory and practice with new tools, research findings, models, services, practices, or alliances that will be widely used.
“Our goal is to develop a framework that can be used across academic library and consortial contexts to position these entities as leaders in and supporters of OER localization,” said Nancy O’Neill, Acting Director of the Kirwan Center and co-PI for the grant. “This work fits squarely within the NLG program mission, and we are delighted that we will have the opportunity to engage with library colleagues nationally and across ϡȱ in the process.”
Out of 118 NLG program proposals submitted this year, only 33 projects were funded, among them the ϡȱ planning grant.
In addition to advancing the field of OER from a narrow focus on cost savings toward a broader commitment to equity and student success, the ϡȱ project also intends to spur national dialogue about the roles that academic libraries and consortia can play in contributing to student success through the development and sustained support of relevant, constituency-oriented instructional materials and practices.
“Libraries and their consortia are playing very active roles in the proliferation and success of Open Educational Resources,” said Andrew K. Pace, Executive Director of the ϡȱAI Library Consortium and co-PI for the grant. “We’re excited to help frame the importance of localizing these efforts and to clarify the important role for libraries and consortia within the larger open education and open scholarship ecosystem.”
This grant project is the latest initiative to come under the umbrella of the ϡȱ Open Source Textbook Initiative (M.O.S.T.)., which supports long-term, statewide scaling and sustainability of open educational resources (OER) to increase access, affordability, and achievement for ϡȱ higher education students across community colleges and private and public four-year institutions. The ϡȱ Kirwan Center leads M.O.S.T. in partnership with the ϡȱ Association of Community Colleges, the ϡȱ Independent College and University Association, ϡȱOnline, and most recently, ϡȱAI. Since 2014, M.O.S.T. has enabled faculty teaching 197 courses at 28 institutions across ϡȱ to switch to OER, resulting in more than $20.6 million in cumulative textbook cost savings for students.
Additional information about the ϡȱ William E. Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation can be found .
Additional information about ϡȱ and Affiliated Institutions Library Consortium can be found .
Additional information on the ϡȱ Open Source Textbook Initiative can be found .
