Repositories
MERLOT is a curated collection of nearly 70,000 online teaching, learning, and faculty development services. Most are Open (CC) it also includes some free or low-cost textbooks. MerlotX ( http://www.merlotx.org (opens in new window) ) was more recently developed to help students search this research database. Merlot can also be accessed through COOLforED(opens in new window)
Canadian Resources: eCampus Ontario(opens in new window) and BC Campus OpenEd(opens in new window)
British Columbia and Ontario have dedicated resources to help their faculty write and find free ebooks and other educational resources. Their easy-to-use (and seemingly shared) search engines help faculty find, adopt, and adapt resources for their use. Resources here have been peer-reviewed using a traditional method. Additionally, these sites provide information to potential authors about using PressBooks, their preferred platform.
College Open Textbooks (opens in new window)
"This collection of sixteen educational non-profit and for-profit organizations, affiliated with more than 200 colleges, is focused on driving awareness and adoptions of open textbooks to more than 2000 community and other two-year colleges." Digital textbooks available here are under various CC licenses and faculty can review textbooks at this site.
Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB)(opens in new window)
Developed to “increase discoverability of Open Access books”, Open Access publishers can list books with DOAB. All books should be under an Open Access license and be subjected to independent and external peer-review prior to publication.
OER Commons(opens in new window)
Here you can search for resources at any grade level (including college lower-division, upper-division, and graduate/professional) and they also have resources for potential authors, faculty wanting to build interactive modules, and more.
Open Book Publishers(opens in new window)
This is a collection of peer-reviewed textbooks under CC licenses, many are CC-BY. PDF and HTML formats are free, while ePub and print versions are available at low costs.
OpenStax: Biology and Anatomy & Physiology(opens in new window)
OpenStax (formerly Connexions) is associated with Rice University and has developed digital textbooks for high need and high enrollment classes. These edited and peer-reviewed texts are available in Epub or PDF formats, or can be ordered printed for a low cost. OpenStax textbooks and images are licensed under CC-BY. The images in the Biology books and the Anatomy and Physiology text have particular relevance to our text.
Open Textbook Library - University of Minnesota (opens in new window)
All textbooks in the Minnesota catalog are openly licensed, peer reviewed, and hosted by an academic institution, scholarly society, or professional organization.
Orange Grove(opens in new window)
Florida’s Orange Grove Project provides Open resources that have been edited and peer reviewed. These are available as PDF (free) or in print (low cost).
PLOS (Public Library of Science)(opens in new window)
“Articles and accompanying materials published by PLOS on the PLOS Sites, unless otherwise indicated, are licensed by the respective authors of such articles for use and distribution by you subject to citation of the original source in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.” PLOS
Saylor Foundation (opens in new window)
Saylor Academy has developed OER textbooks, but is also responsible for developing online courses. Saylor's Bookshelf page contains over 100 full length textbooks.
SUNY Open Textbooks(opens in new window)
Open textbooks authored, peer reviewed, and curated by SUNY faculty for high-need subject areas are available here. Print copies are also available here for low-cost.
WikiBooks (opens in new window)
A collaborative open textbook platform, less traditional in format as anyone can edit.
Teaching Commons (opens in new window)
The Teaching Commons is a collection of textbooks, course materials and more from many colleges and universities and is curated by librarians. It is searchable by institution, material type, and subject area.