Open Textbooks Pilot 

Background 

Curtin University Library is participating in the Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL) Open Educational Resources Collective, which provides a shared open textbook publishing platform (Pressbooks).  

For 2022, the Library has access to Pressbooks and can publish up to two open textbooks. Future activities will depend on the success of the 2022 pilot program. 

Purpose 

To provide Curtin authors with a new online platform option for publishing their open textbooks, as well as build their knowledge and skills with open educational resources. 

The pilot program is part of the Library’s broader strategic objective to support the adoption of open practices in learning and teaching. 

Program Participation 

Participating authors will: 

• Commit to making part or all of their open textbook published through Pressbooks by February 2023, subject to the participation criteria. 
• Access the Community of Practice for Authors where you can learn from other participating authors at Australian Universities, share ideas and find opportunities to collaborate.  
• Access training and documentation from the Library, the Collective, and Pressbooks. 
• Use Pressbooks as an open access publishing platform free of charge. 
• Have the opportunity to apply for an open textbook grant, with funding to be used for any purpose related to your open textbook. 25 x $1,000 grants are available across the Collective of Australian universities. 

 The Library will: 

• Participate in the Community of Practice for Authors with the Curtin participating authors. 
• Provide guidance on the following areas that fit the scope of library services: 
  • Registering identifiers (ORCID, DOI, ISBN, etc). 
  • Copyright, Creative Commons and clearing permissions 
  • Style guides, referencing and attribution 
  • MARC record creation and metadata support 
  • Deposit to the National Library and espace 
  • Tracking impact 
• Facilitate connecting the participating authors with specialist staff who may assist with: 
  • Technical use of the Pressbooks platform
  • Accessibility requirements 
  • Multimedia support 
  • Graphic design
  • Marketing support 

Participants should be aware that the open textbook publishing workflow is intensive and should refer to the CAUL OER collective publishing workflow for more information. Read our summary of the Program for Curtin authors. 

Expressions of interest should be emailed to Claire Murphy, Manager Learning Success.  

Not interested in authoring an open textbook? The Library can provide support if you want to find and re-use Open Educational Resources for your unit readings – contact Library Help for more information.