Amid the concerns about the costs of higher education are the escalating prices of textbooks. According to the Student PIRGs, “sixty-five percent of students have skipped buying a textbook at some point because of cost, and each year, $3 billion of federal student aid goes to pay for textbooks.” The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated the financial and technological barriers to accessing learning materials. To alleviate students’ financial burdens, some educators have switched to library resources and/or openly licensed peer-reviewed materials (open educational resources, OER) in place of commercial textbooks. In addition to being free of charge to students, OER allow instructors to customize the content to suit their pedagogical needs and provide students with up-to-date information on the subject.

The University of Kentucky Libraries will host an information session during Open Access Week to introduce instructors and graduate students in Kentucky to OER, the benefits of using them, and where to find them.