Amidst escalating textbook and journal subscription costs, Salisbury University Libraries actively facilitate cost-effective resources to support faculty in reducing financial burdens on students. Through initiatives like Faculty Select and Read & Publish agreements, faculty members can design zero- and low-cost course materials and publish in selected Open Access journals with Article Processing Charges (APCs) covered by the library’s agreement.
Open Educational Resources (OER) consists of educational tools published in the public domain or under open licensing. OERs adhere to the five core principles known as the “5 Rs”:
- Retain: the right to own and control copies of the resource.
- Revise: the ability to adapt or modify the resource.
- Remix: the option to combine the resource with other materials to create new content.
- Reuse: the permission to publicly utilize the resource in its original, revised, or remixed form.
- Redistribute: the right to share copies of the original or modified resource.
Although OER materials are authored by scholars, faculty may encounter challenges in locating and evaluating these resources due to the absence of traditional academic publishing frameworks.
To simplify this process, Salisbury University Libraries offers EBSCO Faculty Select, enabling faculty to efficiently search for and integrate OER and Open Textbooks into MyClasses. This tool supports searches by keyword, title or author, and provides access to a diverse array of educational resources, including lesson plans, assignments, exams and in-class activities.
When selecting resources from the OER catalog, it is essential to understand the implications of each type of request. If the option to “adopt” a resource is available, it indicates that the resource is genuinely open-access and free of cost to both the library and patrons. In contrast, when the option to “purchase” is presented, selecting this resource requests the library to acquire the eBook for a cost. These eBooks are labeled as “open” because they are DRM-free (Digital Rights Management- free). A DRM-free eBook allows unlimited access, downloads, printing and copying, offering significant flexibility. While this type of eBook requires library funds, it provides a superior model compared to traditional licensing arrangements for patrons. Requests to purchase materials will require approval from your liaison librarian and approval will be dependent on departmental budgets.
Faculty can access Faculty Select via the Salisbury University Resource Finder (SURF) search box on the library’s webpage (www.salisbury.edu/libraries). By selecting “database” from the left-side dropdown menu and typing “Faculty Select,” faculty gain direct access to the OER catalog.
Another way that Salisbury University Libraries supports Open Access Resources is by negotiating agreements with journal publishers to cover APCs on behalf of our faculty authors. In 2024, Salisbury University Libraries established a Read & Publish agreement with The Company of Biologists for five journals in 2025. This agreement covers three hybrid journals – Development, Journal of Cell Science and Journal of Experimental Biology – alongside two fully Open Access journals, Disease Models & Mechanisms and Biology Open. Under this agreement, SU faculty may publish an uncapped number of Open Access research articles in these journals from January 1, 2025, through December 31, 2025, with APCs waived. Detailed publication guidelines are available here. In the future, SU Libraries will be considering more read and publish agreements as feasible.