The Role of Libraries as Publishers in the Open Education Landscape: Reflecting Modern World Practice of Open Textbooks

Abstract

The study aims to analyse the experience of university libraries in different countries in working with the Open Textbook (OT) and to consider the prospects of creating a similar pilot project in Ukraine. Methods. The analysis covered the world publications (journals, books, conference proceedings, posts on social networks) in the field of Library and Information Science, devoted to the role of libraries in OT support, that have appeared since 2014. The author studied the aspects revealing that publication, namely OT, support services are areas with great potential for the future development of academic / university libraries. Results. Numerous evidence is presented that the topic of library as a publisher in OT support is most developed in the universities and colleges in economically developed countries, especially in the USA, Canada, Australia, and Great Britain. Library strategies for OT projects have been identified. The author clarified the nature of the initiatives and partnerships of libraries in supporting OT, as well as the basic services and roles of libraries in these projects. Conclusions. Today, the global practice of Scholarly Communication has enough evidence that the functions of the Library, lost in the course of evolution, as a Knowledge Publisher have returned under its "roof" and supplemented the existing function of Knowledge Managers. Digital Library Publishing (DLP) services in OT support help to change the learning environment and life of students (including persons with disabilities), pedagogical practices of teachers by means of free textbooks with an open license, as well as to receive reputation benefits for the university, improving the image of the latter. The possibility of eliminating systemic inequalities in access to academic resources increases the significance and changes the role of libraries in open education. The successes of Ukrainian librarians in supporting digital scholarly communication initiatives and the successful implementation of Open Access support projects (repositories, ejournals, e-conferences) give confidence that they can act as initiators and key partners in creating affordable textbooks.

Formation and Use of Open Access Resources in University Libraries during the Pandemic and Martial Law in Ukraine

“…At the same time, for the library community of Ukraine, the topic of open educational resources (OER) is almost "terra incognita." For example, today we have found real practices of creating Open textbooks (OT) in partnership with teacher-authors and integrating OT into global OER systems only in the Scientific Library of the Ukrainian State University of Science and Technologies, Dnipro, Ukraine (Kolesnykova, 2019;Kolesnykova, 2021a;Kolesnykova, 2021b;Scientific Library, n.d.).…”

“…The research results of Chinese authors show that despite the constant increase in the number of teachers (63.2%) and students (75%) who refer to library resources during distance learning, 28.9% of teachers and 26.6% consider the library as a platform for online courses (Zhou, 2021). At the same time, other authors note that digital OERs are becoming an important activity of the university library not only as information and library resources, but also as the main elements for the development of new academic disciplines, educational programs and innovations (Markin, 2021;Kolesnykova, 2019). The important role of university libraries in the promotion of online courses is emphasized (Tammaro, 2020).…”

Distance Learning as an Efficient Way to Stimulate Self-Education of Librarians of Scientific Institutions of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine

“…O. Klymenko and O. Sokur thoroughly illuminate the achievements and prospects of the advanced training organization for the librarians of scientific institutions of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in the conditions of global challenges of the 21st century (2021a, 2021b). The publications of T. Kolesnykova andO. Matveyeva (2019, 2021) are devoted to the study of the foreign experience of university libraries in working with open educational resources (Open Textbook, OT, video lectures, etc.)…”

First Steps Before the Jump: Ukrainian University Librarians Survey About Oer

“…Libraries already meet institutional needs by providing funding for OER content creation and staffing, as well as expertise in areas such as copyright and licensing (Kolesnykova, 2019).…”

“…The webinar is aimed at acquainting Ukrainian librarians with global and European trends in the evolution of the OER movement, as well as with the foreign libraries' practices of working with OER. For example, one of the tricks was to identify significant differences between the already wellknown electronic educational resources and the relatively new for Ukraine open educational resources -OER (Kolesnykova, 2019;Kolesnykova, 2021a). These differences include openness, distribution, use, value as well.…”