Flinders University Library is supporting the publishing of two open access textbooks in 2022. These textbooks will be freely available to students. If you are an academic who has been wanting to write a textbook, this is your chance to not only get support, training and documentation to help you get published, but you can also win one of 25 $1000 grants available nationally to help with associated costs. If you don’t have time to write a whole textbook in one go, you can start with just a chapter or two and then build on it later. 

Why open textbooks? In recent years, the university sector have become increasingly aware of the unsustainability of the traditional textbook. The price of textbooks has skyrocketed, putting significant financial pressure on students who are already financially insecure. Open Educational Resources (OERs) are educational resources which are accessible to all at no cost. They are free for students, relieving them of significant financial burden, and can be accessed anywhere at any time.  

For teachers, OERs are much more flexible than traditionally published materials, as they can be edited, re-used and mashed up to suit individual topic learning outcomes. This is why Flinders University Library is committed to promoting the use of OERs wherever possible.  

The Council of Australian University Librarians Open Educational Resources Collective provides a shared open textbook publishing platform (Pressbooks) for participating university libraries in Australia and New Zealand. It will facilitate both independent publishing by authors at participating institutions, as well as collaborative, cross-institutional publishing. The Collective will also build community and capacity across Australian and New Zealand universities to support open textbook publishing.  

Have you been thinking about writing a textbook for one of your topics? Would you like some help along the way, including a community of practice to work with you as you publish? 

If you would like to be a part of this initiative, or would like more information, please contact the library via LibraryEducation.Engagement@flinders.edu.au