Open Education and Academic Libraries : Can Libraries Make Higher Education More Equitable?

This book considers the issues of affordability and open education and their potential to challenge the economic constraints embedded in higher education, as well as contribute to a transformation in how higher education serves its communities.

This book considers the issues of affordability and open education and their potential to challenge the economic constraints embedded in higher education, as well as contribute to a transformation in how higher education serves its communities. In recent decades, the costs of higher education have become increasingly unaffordable. Globally, access to high-quality education and information has been marked by inequity, especially highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Academic libraries have long led efforts to provide access to materials, databases, technology lending, study spaces, and textbook reserve services. They also promote awareness around open educational resources (OER) and practices, which can help higher education meet its evolving needs in a complex international context. However, these OER programs often face challenges related to sustainability, diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion (DEIA), and assessment. This book interrogates whether libraries' ethos of access and inclusivity has been realized through these programs and identifies remaining issues. With contributions from LIS scholars worldwide, it suggests improvements in how libraries approach OER creation, decolonization of libraries and academia, and sustainable OER labour practices. Chapters include case studies, discussions on library eBook models and textbook affordability, and the intersection of OER with diversity, equity, and inclusion. It also explores the dual nature of open education as a catalyst for decolonial change or colonial continuity, and the implications for labour, research, and pedagogy in OER work. It shows that while these programs can challenge economic structures, internal contradictions and biases remain, and libraries must embrace a more radical stance towards global affordability and access. This book will be of interest to librarians and university administrators as well as academics and students with interests in access, affordability, OER issues, collection development and management, and critical studies..