Finding OER and ZTC Resources
There are many OER repositories and databases as well as many freely available online resources that you can use to convert your courses to zero textbook costs. This page lists some of the most useful resources we've found, but is by no means an exhaustive list. If you find a repository or database you find particularly useful, please contact the OER Project Lead for possible inclusion on this website.
OER Repositories and Freely Available Web-Based Materials
ASCCC OER Initiative: Resources organized by discipline that have been created through the OERI.
Libre Commons for Los Rios on LibreTexts: OER created by faculty at all Los Rios colleges.
LibreTexts Commons Full Catalog: Click on Explore the Libraries at the top to select a broad category and then refine your search.
OER Commons: ER Commons is a public digital library of open educational resources. Explore, create, and collaborate with educators around the world to improve curriculum.
Open Textbook Library: The Open Textbook Library provides a growing catalog of free, peer-reviewed, and openly-licensed textbooks.
OpenStax: Based at Rice University OpenStax offers high quality textbooks with adaptive learning technology, designed to improve learning outcomes through personalized educational paths.
Open RN: Open Educational Resources for Nursing from Chippewa Valley Technical College and funded by a Department of Education grant.
MERLOT: The MERLOT system provides access to curated online learning and support materials and content creation tools, led by an international community of educators, learners and researchers.
CC ECHO (CA Consortium for Equitable Change in Hispanic Serving Institutions OER): Scroll down to see completed and in-progress textbooks created by CA community college faculty.
ROTEL (Remixing Open Textbooks through an Equity Lens): Upcoming OER textbooks created or adapted with an equity and inclusion lens.
California Open Online Library for Education (COOL4Ed): The three State of California Higher Education Systems are working together to provide a directory to quality free and open eTextbooks that everyone and anyone can use for teaching and learning.
COOL4Ed Faculty Showcase: This area of the website lists specific disciplines and highlights faculty who've adopted OER, including what material they're using and how they incorporate it into their class(es).
GALILEO open Learning Materials: This repository is run by the University System of Georgia and includes open textbooks and ancillary materials.
OpenEd CUNY: A curated digital library of open educational resources used throughout the City University of New York
OpenALG: Open Affordable Learning Georgia is a collection of OER textbooks, lab manuals and ancillary materials in a variety of disciplines.
Open Textbooks from Iowa State University: A growing collection of unique OER that cover some hard-to-find disciplines like plant science and interior design.
Milne Open Textbooks: Formerly called Open SUNY Textbooks, This is an open access textbook publishing initiative established by State University of New York libraries. All textbooks are faculty-authored and peer-reviewed.
SUNY OER Ready-to-Adopt Courses: OER content for specific disciplines and courses that can be adopted as-is or remixed to fit your needs.
Skills Commons: The US Department of Labor’s Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) program has created a free and open online library called Skills Commons containing free and open learning materials and program support materials for job-driven workforce development.
Pressbooks Directory: Pressbooks is a publishing platform for OER.
BC Campus Open Ed: A collection of open textbooks aligned with the top 40 highest-enrolled subject areas in the province [British Columbia].
Open Oregon Educational Resources: Promotes textbook affordability for community college and university students, and facilitates widespread adoption of open, low-cost, high-quality materials.
Mason OER Metafinder (MOM):Simultaneously search OER repositories.
Canvas Commons: Found in your Canvas campus account, these courses are openly licensed and often contain textbooks, learning activities, and assessment tools.
CrashCourse YouTube Channel: The Crash Course team has produced dozens of courses on a variety of subjects in many disciplines.
TEDEd: Technology, Entertainment, and Design's education initiative. Use videos already on the platform or create your own.
PhET Simulations: Physics Education Technology simulations to help students engage in science and mathematics.
Wisc-Online: A digital library of web-based learning objects for technical education and other disciplines.
Library Resources Available to Faculty and Students
Converting your course to Zero Textbook Costs doesn’t mean everything has to be an Open Educational Resource (OER). The library has a wealth of material to help you meet learning goals while reducing material costs for your students.
Where to Look
Don’t rely on the library’s search engine (OneSearch). Instead, begin your search for resources in specific databases that will be most useful in your discipline.
Library Databases Page: This page is organized with general databases at the top (databases that cover virtually all disciplines) and then goes into databases that are geared toward specific disciplines and subject matter. After the “General” section, databases are organized by category in alphabetical order. Here’s a sampling of what you’ll find on this page:
CQ Researcher: Great for current events and providing topic ideas for research papers, discussions, and other projects.
Films on Demand: Nearly all disciplines are covered in this streaming media database. You can link to or embed an entire video or small portions. Films on Demand is integrated into Canvas to allow you to embed content directly into a page. See instructions in the library’s Films on Demand User Guide.
EBSCO Ebook Collection: This is a vast collection of ebooks, both fiction and nonfiction. You can do a keyword search or browse by topics.
Proquest Ebook Central: Scholarly and popular ebooks from many subject areas.
Very Short Introductions from Oxford University Press: This collection of concise ebooks provide an overview of complex topics covering many disciplines.
Gale Ebooks: The online reference collection with general and subject-specific encyclopedias, primary source documents, and background information.
US Major Dailies: Access to the country’s top five newspapers: NY Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and Chicago Tribune.
Sacramento Bee: Database access allows you to read the Sacramento Bee without hitting a paywall or being bombarded by online advertisements.
Wiley Online Library: Scholarly journals in the social sciences, life sciences, computer science, business, communication, and other fields.
SAGE Journals: Scholarly journals in the health sciences, social sciences, humanities, engineering, and life sciences.