Academic Library Director Coordinates SUNY’s Open Textbook Initiative

From The Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester,NY):

The State University of New York [SUNY] is moving ahead with a “call for authors” for a second round of its Open SUNY Textbook initiative, though the online textbooks commissioned are generally being completed later than expected.
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“What we are trying to do is create a niche: affordable learning that is high-quality and academic-friendly,” said Cyril Oberlander, who as director of the State University College at Geneseo’s Milne Library has coordinated this initiative.
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“Academic libraries are stepping up to this challenge by re-examining their roles in scholarly communications, and more recently, developing library publishing services,” Oberlander said.
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Open SUNY Textbook started as a pilot program, initially funded by a $20,000 SUNY grant designed to pay four or five SUNY faculty $3,000 each to write a textbook — and $1,000 more if they involve students in helping with a textbook. The SUNY seed money also has been used to pay faculty members $1,000 to review these books — a fact-check of sorts.

Read the Complete Article
Direct to Open SUNY Textbook Website

• Project Description

See Also: Cyril Oberlander’s Webpage

Filed under: Academic Libraries, Funding, Libraries, News, Publishing, Scholarly Communications