02/11/2020

An Update to OhioLINK’s Affordable Textbooks Initiative

OhioLINK is Ohio’s statewide academic library consortium

Editor’s Note: Today’s post is by Gwen Evans. Gwen has been the Executive Director of OhioLINK, the Ohio Library and Information Network, since October of 2012. She was previously Associate Professor and Coordinator of Library Information and Emerging Technology at Bowling Green State University. Evans has 18 years of experience working in libraries, including the John Crerar Science Library at the University of Chicago, Mt. Holyoke College Library, and Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor. She received her MS in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, and has a Masters in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Chicago, during which time she did two years of ethnographic research on the island of Flores, Indonesia.

OhioLINK is Ohio’s statewide academic library consortium, connecting print and digital collections among its 90 member institutions and managing statewide collaborative library and student success services. In October of 2018, I wrote two guest posts for The Scholarly Kitchen about OhioLINK’s statewide affordable textbook initiatives for higher education in the state of Ohio. Affordable Learning Ohio encompasses Open Educational Resource (OER) support and advocacy, as well as statewide pricing for commercial textbooks, and use of library materials as textbook replacements whether acquired and shared at the consortial level or on individual campuses.

A multi-pronged approach including commercial textbooks and OER allowed us to secure the best possible commercial pricing for students at our member institutions, provide quality content and academic choice for individual faculty members, and simultaneously encourage and support the development of OER initiatives at our 90 member institutions.

Please select this link to read the complete article from The Scholarly Kitchen.