The use of open textbooks is often associated with STEM fields, likely due to their large intro courses and costly textbooks. This is a misconception, however, as humanities courses can and do benefit from OER. A review of the literature yields numerous examples of OER adoption in fields like art history, English, and world languages. Taking this perceived gap between STEM and the humanities as a starting point, this presentation will consider the space between what we know and would like to know about the use of open textbooks in humanities disciplines. The presenter will share the findings of an original study of characteristics of humanities textbooks in the Open Textbook Library. These findings will be contextualized in the scholarly literature on the use of OER in the humanities, including potential benefits and barriers to adoption, and the presenters’ experiences as a humanities librarian participating in a program that incentivizes the use of open and affordable resources.
Attendees of this session will be able to:- Summarize the findings of a study on the characteristics of open textbooks in the humanities included in the Open Textbook Library.
- Identify one or more potential benefits of OER or barriers to OER adoption in the humanities.
- Generate potential strategies to best support humanities faculty interested in OER adoption and/or creation.
