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Open Educational Resources: Options & Opportunities for Consortial Solutions
Last modified: 2017-07-04
Abstract
In 2015, The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), published an Open Access Policy on Publications designed to improve access to publications funded by these agencies, requiring for manuscripts and journals to be published openly.
This policy highlighted some of the current weaknesses with regard to where higher education is in supporting faculty and staff in making their scholarship publically available. Aside from the “who should” and “how should they” in the technical sense, new questions are beginning to emerge with regard to the ownership of content intended to be free. Issues such as how to credit the original makers, version control and the role that creative commons license plays are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The area of library publishing, taking on a leadership role not just in the production of openly available content and feeding into opportunities created by the Tri-Agency decision, but ensuring that this content is of the uttermost quality in terms of quality of the scholarly research as well as presentation - meaning that it's flexible and adaptable with assistive technologies as well as structured with long-term preservation in mind.
Given this context, we are presented with a unique opportunity to redefine the role that academic libraries play on university campuses as producers and disseminators of research and learning materials. The following presentation will share research and findings published in a white paper dedicated to open educational resources.
This policy highlighted some of the current weaknesses with regard to where higher education is in supporting faculty and staff in making their scholarship publically available. Aside from the “who should” and “how should they” in the technical sense, new questions are beginning to emerge with regard to the ownership of content intended to be free. Issues such as how to credit the original makers, version control and the role that creative commons license plays are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The area of library publishing, taking on a leadership role not just in the production of openly available content and feeding into opportunities created by the Tri-Agency decision, but ensuring that this content is of the uttermost quality in terms of quality of the scholarly research as well as presentation - meaning that it's flexible and adaptable with assistive technologies as well as structured with long-term preservation in mind.
Given this context, we are presented with a unique opportunity to redefine the role that academic libraries play on university campuses as producers and disseminators of research and learning materials. The following presentation will share research and findings published in a white paper dedicated to open educational resources.