Library Guides: OER Quick Start Resources: Finding OER

Other Places to Search for OER

Search within these excellent collections of OER materials to find even more options. The best places to search may vary for your field. Please don't hesitate to ask a librarian for suggestions!

Essential OER Search Locations

OpenStax
Open Stax offers peer-reviewed OER textbooks and coordinated ancillary materials for essential courses and topics.
Open Textbook Library
This curated collection of original (non-derivative) OER textbooks has criteria for submission and collects reviews. Acceptance requires the book be in use at multiple higher education institutions, or affiliated with a higher education institution, scholarly society, or professional organization.
LibreTexts
Explore curated collections of OER textbooks, course shells, and learning objects on the bookshelves of other institutions. Select a library topic to begin. View Campus Bookshelves option to browse the materials being used at other institutions.
OER Commons
This digital library makes it easy to find many types of OER materials. It includes reviews.
Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB)
DOAB is a community-driven discovery service that indexes and provides access to scholarly, peer-reviewed open access books and helps users to find trusted open access book publishers. All DOAB services are free of charge and all data is freely available.

OER Collections Associated with Individual Schools or Curated by an Organization

Open Illinois
This hub in OER Commons includes curated OER Collections by subject and OER developed in Illinois. This is organized by the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI).
BC Open Collection
Search OER created or used by faculty in British Columbia.
OpenEd CUNY
OpenEd CUNY is a curated digital library of open educational resources associated with the City University of New York.

Tried multiple collections without success? Use a metafinder!

Mason OER Metafinder
This tool performs a simultaneous search across 23 different sources of open educational materials. By default, it does include some materials that are freely available but not OER, although the source list for a search is fully editable.
OASIS
OASIS searches open content from 117 different sources and contains more than 440,000 records. Users can browse OASIS by subject, or by material types such as textbooks, audiobooks, videos, and interactive simulations.

How to Find OER in the Library Catalog

Search in Spartan Search, the library catalog, to find thousands of open-access books and articles, some of which are OER.

Use the "open access" filter on the left side of your results to narrow to this type of material. As a reminder, OA materials are freely available but usually do not allow retaining, redistributing, remixing, or revising as an OER would.

Spartan Search
Use the Library's Spartan Search to search across everything the library has available. Find books, journal articles, videos, and other resources on your topic.
Spartan Search - Basics (2:40)
This short video explains how to make the most of Spartan Search.

OER Quick Start Resources

Open Access vs. OER

Get Help Finding OER

Help

Librarians can help you with your search for OER and answer your questions.

Librarians can even create a report of affordable material options that meet your needs.

Other Places to Search for OER

Essential OER Search Locations

OER Collections Associated with Individual Schools or Curated by an Organization

Tried multiple collections without success? Use a metafinder!

How to Find OER in the Library Catalog