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Introduction to Affordable Instructional Materials TEXTBOOKS: Create Your Own

A one-stop shop for course instructors - all things affordable instructional materials, making textbooks affordable for students, and putting books on reserve with UAB Libraries.

Finding Materials

Digital Public Library of America

  • Links to libraries, archives, and museums
  • Includes photographs, maps, news footage, oral histories, personal letters, museum objects, and artwork,

Khan Academy

  • Educational videos
  • All subjects

Open Culture

  • Links to a/v resources from other sites.

Smithsonian Open Access

  • images from the Smithsonian Institution

TED-ed

  • Engaging short videos
  • Curated playlists
  • All subjects

American Institute of Mathematics

  • Open textbooks approved by the American Institute of Mathematics

BCcampusOpenEd

  • From British Columbia
  • Peer Reviewed
  • Includes instructor resources
  • Arts, Business, Education, Health, Law, Sciences, Social Sciences, and even some trades
  • Contains a Faculty OER Toolkit

Cornell Open

  • New and out-of-print titles from Cornell University Press
  • Anthropology, classics, German studies, literary criticism, political science, Slavic studies, and women's studies

DOAB: Directory of Open Access Books

  • Open access books, many from academic publishers

EdTech Books

  • Free textbooks by educators
  • Peer Reviewed
  • Education, Literacy, Government and Civics, and Research Methods

Gutenberg

  • Free, public domain books

JSTOR Open Access Books

  • From university presses
  • Over 600 books from El Colegio de México

LibreText

  • From University of California Davis
  • Contains interactive visualizations and 3D models
  • Math, Science, Social Sciences, Humanities, Engineering, Medicine

OAPEN

  • Based in the Netherlands
  • Work with publishers (many are university presses)
  • Languages other than English
  • Primarily Social Sciences, Humanities; also Business, Law, Science

OpenStax

  • From Rice University
  • Peer Reviewed
  • Includes instructor resources
  • Math, Science, Social Sciences, Humanities

Open Textbook Library

  • Indexes books from universities such as Clemson, CalPoly, and Colorado State
  • Business, Math, Science, Social Sciences, Humanities, Education, Engineering, Law

OpenTextBookStore

  • Books are free
  • Primarily mathematics

Project MUSE Open Access

Washington 45

  • Textbooks for courses in Washington
  • General education English, math, arts, sciences, and history

Cool4ED

  • California Open Online Library for Education
  • Textbooks, course materials, courses, and journals
  • All subjects

CORA: Community of Online Research Assignments

  • Research assignments and teaching toolkits
  • Sponsored by Loyola Marymount University Library

Galileo Open Learning Materials

  • Open textbooks and materials from Georgia
  • Business, Sciences, Social Sciences, Education, Engineering, Fine Arts, Foreign Languages, Philosophy

MERLOT

  • Curated online learning and support materials
  • International community of educators, learners and researchers.
  • Can create course portfolios
  • All subjects

MIT OpenCourseWare

  • Materials from MIT courses
  • Contains assignments, audio, video, and lectures; exams, simulations, and projects

Open Yale Courses

  • Lectures, syllabi, suggested readings, and problem sets
  • Business, Sciences, Social Sciences, Engineering, Fine Arts, Foreign Languages

UNC Greensboro OER by Subject

  • Lists individual repositories for 47 subject areas

Need Help?

UAB Libraries is happy to help you create your textbook!

Contact your Liaison Librarian for assistance locating resources and designing a course textbook.

Contact the Office of Scholarly Communications for assistance regarding open access and licensing.

For any other questions regarding creating and using affordable materials and how to get started, contact the Collection Development Librarian, Jaycee Chapman, at jkchapma@uab.edu.