Open Educational Resources – why libraries are incentivizing open content creation, curation, and adaptation

The movement toward Open Educational Resources is challenging and changing the paradigm of academic libraries. Libraries are leading and innovating in the movement for the creation and adaptation of openly licensed content, whereby the creator can retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute content. There are large-scale library or librarian-led projects that are broadening library services, such as SUNY Affordable Learning Solutions, the Achieving the Dream OER degrees, Affordable Learning Georgia, as well as smaller campus initiatives. These projects shift the library’s role in education and increase measurable retention rates, such as engagement, student satisfaction, grade performance, and successful completion of courses. This chapter provides an overview of large-scale projects and then provide an example of the process at Lehman College to start an OER Fellowship, which was adapted from City Tech.