Do you care about the diverse services that academic libraries provide & all the people that make it happen? Would you like to support a leading academic institution with major open science & scholarship initiatives? If so, check out this position, open now! www.academicsearch.org/open-searche...

Academic Search

Committed to identifying and developing leaders by providing the highest level of executive search to our higher education partners.

academicsearch.org

#OER leaders: is there an article, chapter, case study, or webinar that you find particularly insightful or unique in the field? We are pulling together some readings for our next Community of Practice, & I'd love to include a variety of options that will speak to those participating this fall.

Our latest Iowa #OER report is out! It's been an interesting year for local colleges supporting OER, with many ups and downs. I am glad we are able to capture and share the work happening across the state!

Iowa OER@iowaoer.bsky.social · last mo.

Our annual report was recently published! What did we learn? #OER use is still strong across Iowa, though some programs face challenges accessing this data. Some programs are running strong, with new #ZeroTextbookCost degrees, while others need support. Read more: drive.google.com/file/d/1g1ck...

I am so looking forward to presenting at #LPForum this afternoon with Harrison Inefuku about our work developing Digital Press +, a repository for ancillary materials connected to open textbooks from the ISU Digital Press. Kudos to @janewayolh.bsky.social for making this project possible!

Summer is apparently self-reflection time for me. It’s way past Mother’s Day, but I've been thinking recently about all the jobs that my mother has had in her lifetime, and how that colored the way I think about lifelong learning, careers, and access to information.

"After a very tiring year, it was just lovely to connect with like-minded people who keep contributing to open anyway. I feel reinvigorated," shared an #OEGlobal 2024 attendee Find your people at #OEGlobal26. Early bird in-person rate until Aug 9 Register –> https://twp.ai/E5D1Fv #OpenEducation

New report! The College in High School Alliance, along with @iskme.org and @goopen.bsky.social have put out a report with policy recommendations to support for dual enrollment (concurrent enrollment in Iowa) with the use of #OER! See the report here: collegeinhighschool.org/resources/du...

State Policy Guidance on Expanding Open Educational Resources in Dual Enrollment

New guidance for state policymakers on expanding the use of open educational resources (OER) in dual enrollment to close the affordability gap.

collegeinhighschool.org

New videos are up! This year, our local #OER committee identified a major interest in videos that answer common questions faculty bring to us. Many are institution-specific, but some might find this one useful: www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4k6...

Choosing the Right Creative Commons License for You

YouTube video by Iowa State University Library

youtube.com

Minot Public Library director comes out swinging on library ebook costs with the best metaphor we've seen yet. www.minotdailynews.com/opinion/loca...

Our April blog post, contributed by @openaccesselder.bsky.social is live now! "Update Schedules for OER" reviews why traditional edition updates may not be the best option for every class and outlines three examples of how #OER can be updated in unique ways: iowaoer.com/2026/04/27/u...

Exciting news, #OER friends! At this year's @aacu.org #AACUCLASS2026 Conference, it was announced that Open Educational Resources will be the twelfth #HighImpactPractice! "A robust research report on OER and Student Success" will be coming out later this spring, as will the official announcement.

In other news, happy National #Library Workers Day! If you've ever gotten access to an article, news story, book, or other resource thanks to a library, thank a librarian today!

I posted recently about how the electives I took in high school and college helped shape me into a more well-rounded person. It's great to see the tensions in how people approach electives outlined in this new article: www.chronicle.com/article/are-...

Electives Are Coming Under Scrutiny. They May Never Be More Valuable.

They’re derided as distractions or worse, but electives can also open unseen avenues in work and life.

chronicle.com

I'm happy to share a new publication from the ISU Digital Press! Introduction to Woodworking Machines by Peter Scheidt is an #OER written to introduce basic woodworking machine safety and techniques to beginner woodworkers using an instructional woodshop. doi.org/10.31274/isu...

Thanks to all who came out to our All Things Open 2026 presentation this afternoon, "Jumping Into the Deep End: Lessons Learned from Editing a Book about Open Movements!" I had a great time getting to share our experience editing an #OpenAccess book about open stuff.

Every once in a while I reflect on my best educational experiences, and it still surprises me (somehow, I don't know why, it makes sense after all) that the experiences I remember most fondly are the ones where the learning was gamified, personalized, or contextualized for me. A thread:

Are you looking for new resources to help teach about the research and publication process? Check out these new #OER publications from the Iowa State University Digital Press, lead by authors at the www.iastatedigitalpress.com

Less than 6 months after publishing, our 🪱 Introduction to Soil Science Second Edition 📙 textbook has hit... 3k downloads ⬇️ 7k readers 📚 15k views 👀 🎉 #Soil #SoilScience #OpenAccess #OER 🙏 Thank you Amber Anderson and @openaccesselder.bsky.social Check it out here 👇 doi.org/10.31274/isu...

I was very excited to see that the Resolution in support of #OER proposed by our campus committee has been featured at the top of the Faculty Senate meeting overview written up in our university newsletter this week! www.inside.iastate.edu/article/2026...

Senators to vote next month on support for open educational resources - Inside Iowa State

inside.iastate.edu

I got to write this month's Resource Highlight blog post for @iowaoer.bsky.social, and decided to make it a feature of some fun #OER available for the electives and mid/high-level courses that don't get enough love! Check out the few I picked out to feature this month: iowaoer.com/2026/01/13/j...

January 2026 Resource Highlight: OER Beyond the Gen Ed Curriculum

This month’s blog post was contributed by Abbey K. Elder, Open Access & Scholarly Communication Librarian at Iowa State University. Introduction Because many open education programs focus…

iowaoer.com

It's hopefully a good sign that more people are reflecting on meaningful learning now, though I wish it hadn't taken this much of a push to get back around to it!

Josh Eyler@josheyler.bsky.social · 7mo ago

I've noticed something interesting happening. I have been getting a lot of speaking requests related to my older book--How Humans Learn. I'm still having many conversations about grades, but in an age of AI, people want to talk about learning itself & how to preserve it. bookshop.org/p/books/how-...

Being in the office the week of New Year's feels a bit like being in a haunted house. It's eerily silent but every once in a while you hear laughter in the distance, or glimpse a figure out of the corner of your eye (typically when one of the other 10 people here gets up to refill their coffee)

"[M]y portfolio stands out because of the gamble I took on Wikipedia. I also know that by every metric available, that gamble has paid off, for me and, far more critically, for my students." Read why and how Dr. Sancinito included the Wikipedia assignment in her tenure narrative: wp.me/p4LBez-uU0

Wikipedia on the Tenure Track

Jane Sancinito is Assistant Professor of History at University of Massachusetts Lowell. She is an ancient historian, focusing on merchants, artisans and working people in the Roman Empire, a numism…

wp.me

If you are intimidated by all the comprehensive guides going over everything to know about accessibility, this is a great entry point to one piece of the conversation: updating headings! This is an easy way to make a website more accessible and it's good to see it written about conceisely!

Reclaim Hosting@www.reclaimhosting.com · 8mo ago

First up, a big shout out to our newest colleague, Alexis Block! Alexis has hit the ground running and you can already read her excellent work on the blog: Year-End Accessibility Tune-Up blog.reclaimhosting.com/year-end-acc...

Congratulations to our peers at Open Oregon Educational Resources for the launch of their open curriculum projects, a suite of peer-reviewed open textbooks with linked course packs and print options available. This is a great example for others in the #OER space! openoregon.org/open-curricu...

Open Curriculum Projects Launch in Oregon and Beyond

Open Oregon Educational Resources is delighted to share our openly licensed course materials with an equity lens in Human Development and Family Studies, Sociology, and Criminal Justice…

openoregon.org

Thanks @cogdog.bsky.social for sharing this excellent article from earlier this year, further cementing my belief that Tel Amiel's work on platformization should be required reading for those in the #EdTech space! This article co-authored by Almeida, Damiati, & Amiel: doi.org/10.5007/2175...

Kudos to @profjhangiani.bsky.social, Clint Lalonde, Josie Gray, & folks across British Columbia who worked on this new report on institutions' capacity to support #OpenEducation. It is an excellent read & a great model for the rest of us! PDF Link to report: bccampus.ca/wp-content/u...

Lyrasis, the Big Ten Academic Alliance Center for Library Programs and the California Digital Library have been awarded a grant to advance community-governed, open access scholarly publishing in the United States. Read more about the #DiamondOA mapping project here, https://ow.ly/QCKC50Xu6vU.

The Iowa State University Nursing program has just announced its launch of the nation’s first RN-to-BSN program with no cost for course materials. 100% of the nursing curriculum uses #OER: free adaptable learning materials developed and shared by experts across the US and beyond.

Students save big in new nursing curriculum with zero textbook costs - University Library

lib.iastate.edu

I created a bilingual checklist that classifies each action by career stage (all, mid-career, senior) and potential career risk (low, medium, high). Use it to see what you already do or what you want to commit to next. ✅ 📄 Download the checklist: doi.org/10.5281/zeno... #OpenAccess #DiamondOA