5 Chapter 5 – Library Initiatives

Initiatives promoting and facilitating OER and affordable course content adoption within University Libraries currently underway and proposed are described below.

 

Course Reserves

 

University Libraries has a long tradition of service to classroom instruction via Course Reserves Services, by its nature an affordable option to providing course content. Textual materials as well as audio and video recordings are made available to students at no cost at every campus location and online.

 

While some course materials are still offered in hard copy print, many more take the form of links to the Libraries’ licensed digital resources, PDFs delivered digitally, streaming audio and video, and e-books. Library electronic reserves also hosts locally created content, such as sample exams and student presentations.

 

Sometimes textbooks are available on Course Reserves. Though prohibitive to consider supplying a copy of every textbook students may need (a cost estimated to approach $1.9 million University-wide per semester for undergraduates alone), many library locations provide at least some textbooks via Course Reserves. Superseded older editions may often be found in the stacks. The Libraries welcomes the opportunity to include faculty desk copies on the Reserves shelves and actively seeks digital licensing options when available.

 

Copyright permissions for scanned content are managed by staff of University Libraries, which absorbs permission fees and liability, thus indemnifying the course provider from responsibility.³² The expertise of Course Reserve staff and the Copyright Officer, an attorney specializing in intellectual property, informs the Libraries’ practice, with the goal of respecting the rights of content providers while also maximizing our, and our students’, rights under fair use.

 

Librarians provide guidance for faculty wishing to explore affordable library resources available for the curricula.

 

Even traditional services like course reserves are being reexamined with the goal of increasing their reach and impact on student course material access. The University of Minnesota has established a strong affordable course content program, with University Libraries a leading partner. Among the programs at the University of Minnesota is a strategic partnership between University Libraries and the university bookstore to take a programmatic approach to course-

32 Penn State University, “Policy IP05: Policy Governing Copyright Clearance.” http://guru.psu.edu/policies/IP05.html.

 

level access to licensed content through a program entitled the “Bookstore Partnership Project.” Through this partnership, the bookstore provides the list of materials created for each course.

The library created an automated process to compare the required materials with currently licensed digital content and the licenses available through their core materials vendors. As a result, 65 assigned texts were found to be in the digital collection and made available at the course level through the Electronic Reserves Service. Through an allocation of $20,000 for Fall Semester 2015, just under another 200 titles were added, with potential savings to students of approximately $331,000.³³

 

A pilot of this systematic approach to course reserves for World Campus courses is recommended for the upcoming academic year. The course material adoptions can be gathered systematically from the World Campus and the process to check them against current electronic licenses can be established over the upcoming year. Data for the fall semester can be used to establish the process and budget for material support with the pilot and data gathering on use and cost savings can be conducted in the spring semester.

 

Textbook Fund

 

The Textbook Fund was established as a result of University Libraries fund-raising as part of the 2015 Giving Tuesday initiative. For 2015, $37,242 was raised to establish the fund. Funds will be used to purchase textbooks to be placed on reserve. The Textbook Fund will also be the goal for subsequent efforts as part of Giving Tuesday and will be part of the upcoming campaign.

 

In addition to central funding through the Textbook Fund, some Commonwealth Campus Libraries have established partnerships to support textbook purchases for course reserves. For example, at Penn State Harrisburg, the library partners with the Learning Center and Student Activities Fund (SAF) to develop and maintain a collection of textbooks used by Harrisburg’s general education classes: math, chemistry, physics, economics, statistics and psychology. The Learning Center applies for the SAF grants and purchases the textbooks. The library places the books on a 2-hour library-use-only reserve. This program started in Fall 2012, and students appreciate this popular service. In 2014-2015, 31 titles circulated 3,633 times. In 2015-2016, 35 titles circulated 3,511 times. This type of partnership can be pursued at several UL locations.

 

Canvas

 

Course Reserves has long been integrated with ANGEL, the learning management system (LMS) currently being replaced with Canvas. The LMS team in the Libraries, which includes and has met with instructional designers from colleges across Penn State, is testing a local installation of Canvas as we transition to a new electronic reserves management system

33 U. of Minn, eLearning report: Information for FY17 compact submission, Minneapolis, MN. (2015).

 

licensed from Springshare, which also provides platforms for LibGuides (subject and course research guides) and Ask a Librarian. Springshare’s platform allows the Libraries to provide a suite of information services seamlessly integrated with Canvas. Other OA resources and apps can also be integrated with Canvas, providing the opportunity to promote OER directly to faculty and students within the LMS. The University and the Libraries may wish to investigate making selected OER apps available systematically in Canvas courses.

 

Accessibility is a hallmark of Library Services. Every effort is made to ensure resources provided through Course Reserves, the Libraries’ website or mounted to the course management system by the Libraries are accessible for print disabled users, or that an alternative format is made available.

 

University Libraries has partnered with and supported World Campus since its inception, providing information services, delivery of digital and physical materials to students, and electronic reserve and copyright services to faculty and instructional designers. These collaborations have served as models for similar partnerships between University Libraries and colleges and Commonwealth Campuses throughout Penn State.

 

Outreach and Professional Development

 

As part of the University Libraries instruction and outreach programs, OER are included in faculty outreach and collaboration. A more formal OER and affordable course content outreach program administered by University Libraries is recommended. In addition to its teaching and learning mission, University Libraries is well-positioned to administer such a program.

Throughout its stakeholder engagement opportunities, the OER Task Force commonly fielded questions regarding the intellectual property issues related to sharing OER developed or adapted by faculty. The Copyright Officer within University Libraries is well-positioned to provide programming and guidance in this area as discussed in Chapter 3.