John E. Riley Library: Open Educational Resources: Open Textbooks

Open Textbooks

Open textbooks are books covered by an open copyright license and availabe freely to students, teachers and members of the public. Often, though it depends on the specific license, anyone will have the right to access, download, revise, or customize the content.

For more information, see Educause Learning Initiative's "7 Things You Should Know About(TM) Open Textbook Publishing"

Image: "Free the textbook" by Libby Levi, opensource.com is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Find Open Textbooks

BC Campus Open Textbooks
British Columbia Ministry of Advanced Education’s Open Textbook Project makes open textbooks available in BC's 40 highest-enrolled academic subject areas. As of Feb. 2015, there are currently 67 reviewed textbooks.
College Open Textbooks
The Community College Open Textbooks Collaborative, funded by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, has identified open textbooks for use in community college courses. Most link out to other sites but College Open Textbooks note when texts are peer-reviewed.
The National Academies Press
Note--these are not true open textbooks. They are copyrighted but the pdfs are free to download. You can also order the physical copies for a lower cost.

The NAP publishes more than 200 books a year on a wide range of topics in science, engineering, and medicine, providing authoritative information on important matters in science and health policy.
OER Commons: Open Textbooks
Use the OER Commons to browse or search for free and open textbooks. Use the link above and then narrow your search to subject & level or search the OER and narrow your material type to textbook.
Open Culture
Founded by Dan Colman, current Director & Associate Dean of Stanford’s Continuing Studies Program, Open Culture compiles open access resources from across the internet. Their text book list is organized by discipline and gives brief descriptions of authors & affiliations.
OpenStax
OpenStax is a nonprofit based at Rice University, that has published more than 20 open source, peer-reviewed, textbooks in common undergraduate subjects like Algebra, History, and Psychology. They also maintain the OpenStax CNX, a place to view and share free educational material in modules.
Open Textbook Catalog
University of Minnesota created this database of peer-reviewed, open-source texts. As of April 2015, there are about 90 books in the collection. If you are a faculty member from any institution, you can support this project and help your peers evaluate the textbooks in this catalog by writing a review of an open textbook in your field. Email open@umn.edu to get started.
Open Textbook Library
The Open Textbook Network created this database of peer-reviewed, open-source texts.The University of Washington Libraries is a charter member of the network. The goal is to compile all quality open textbooks promote faculty reviews of them in one place. Covers most subject areas.
Tidewater Community College Open Textbooks
Tidewater Community College's entire catalog of open textbooks, created for their Z-degree (textbook-free degree).