Research Guides: Open Educational Resources (OER): Dive Deep: Textbooks

What is an Open Textbook?

An open textbook is an openly-licensed textbook offered online by its author(s). The open license sets open textbooks apart from traditional textbooks by allowing users to read online, download, or print the book at no additional cost.

For a textbook to be considered open, it must be licensed in a way that grants a baseline set of rights to users that are less restrictive than its standard copyright. A license or list of permissions must be clearly stated by the author.

Generally, the minimum baseline rights allow users at least the following:

to use the textbook without compensating the author
to copy the textbook, with appropriate credit to the author
to distribute the textbook non-commercially
to shift the textbook into another format (such as digital or print)

Many authors also grant rights such as:

to add, remove or alter content in the textbook, often on the condition that derivative works must have the same license
to copy and distribute the textbook without giving credit to the author to use the textbook commercially

Search Open Textbooks

Virtual Library of Virginia Initiatives - Start Here

Open Textbook Library This link opens in a new window
Includes a broad selection of peer-reviewed and openly-licensed textbooks, including accounting & finance, humanities, natural sciences, social sciences, and more. The Open Textbook Library is supported by the Open Textbook Network based in the Center for Open Education in the University of Minnesota’s College of Education and Human Development.
VIVA Faculty Textbook Portal
This portal is a catalog to assist Virginia public college and university faculty in finding and selecting open and affordable textbooks for their courses in one place. The Portal is part of a wide-scale Open and Affordable Initiative by VIVA to provide no-cost and barrier-free access to course curriculum resources for students and researchers. The Portal contains over 200,000 titles from VIVA’s shared library collections, open access textbooks, and ebooks available for VIVA to purchase on behalf of public colleges and universities throughout the state. All VIVA owned content and Open Educational Content is fully accessible through "Access this eBook through your institution" link on the search results page. You can also preview the entirety of the ebooks available for VIVA purchase through the link. Once you have found a title you can use for your course, fill out the "Adopt this book for your course" form on the search results page.

Also try these textbook portals:

BC Open Campus Textbook Project This link opens in a new window
Free open textbooks for courses in arts, sciences, humanities and business
Directory of Open Access Books This link opens in a new window
Nearly 2,500 openly accessible electronic books with a focus on humanities and social sciences
MERLOT This link opens in a new window
MERLOT stands for Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching. This resource has thousands of materials, including lesson plans, activities, tutorials and more. Create a username and login to keep track of your favorites.
OER Commons This link opens in a new window
OER Commons indexes a wide variety of openly licensed educational materials. Licenses vary by item.
Search instructions: Under "material type" select "textbook" or for a curated collection go to: https://www.oercommons.org/hubs/open-textbooks
Open Book Publishers This link opens in a new window
UK-based OBP publishes hardback, paperback, pdf and ebook editions that include a free online edition that can be read via their website, downloaded, reused or embedded.
OpenStax This link opens in a new window
OpenStax publishes high-quality, peer-reviewed, openly licensed textbooks in a broad range of subject areas.
Saylor Academy Bookshelf This link opens in a new window
Though Saylor Academy's main efforts go towards creating open and online courses, they have open textbooks searchable by subject.

Open Educational Resources (OER): Dive Deep

Quick Reads

What is an Open Textbook?

Search Open Textbooks

Virtual Library of Virginia Initiatives - Start Here

Also try these textbook portals: