Open Library update: New impact calculator, French resources, and more!

By Lillian Hogendoorn
Digital Access and OER Lead, eCampusOntario 

It’s been a busy month for the eCampusOntario Open Library! We have been hard at work adding new resources and features to the library to make finding and using Open Educational Resources a great experience for all of you.  

This month, we added seven new resources for our Franco-Ontarian community, doubling our collection of French resources. These resources come from the University of Ottawa and the University of Quebec. Adding these resources is part of our commitment to actively grow our French library and support our French speaking users in adopting, adapting, and creating OER. If you have a French resource you’d like to suggest for the collection, click here or send an email to open@ecampusontario.ca 

As we grow our collection, we have also seen enormous growth in the footprint of OER in Ontario. Thirty-four Ontario institutions currently have one or more courses that use OER. Open Educational Resources have reduced textbook costs for Ontario students by nearly $5 million. Try our new OER Savings Calculator and learn more about how we calculate our impact here.

Are you using OER in your course? Let us know! If your adoption helps us cross the $5 million milestone, you’ll receive a special thank you gift courtesy of our team at eCampusOntario.  

You may notice something new about the look and feel of the Open Library. This month, we introduced a new search and catalogue interface as a part of our Unified Search project. Searching the Open Library is now easier than ever, with faster load times, more detailed item previews, and more relevant search results. Try our new search today. 

Banner photo courtesy of eCampusOntario