The University System of Maryland (USM) has received a two-year planning grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), a federal agency charged with advancing, supporting, and empowering America’s museums, libraries, and related organizations through grantmaking, research, and policy development.
The USM grant, which will be led by the USM William E. Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation and University System of Maryland and Affiliated Institutions Library Consortium (USMAI), will articulate the role of academic libraries and library consortia in increasing the relevance of open educational resources (OER) through OER localization, defined as the practices and partnerships necessary to increase the relevance of OER for differing student populations, student learning needs, faculty interests, and institutional and community contexts.
The USM grant of $149,877 comes under the IMLS National Leadership Grants for Libraries program, which supports projects of national impact that address significant challenges and opportunities facing the library and archives fields and have the potential to advance theory and practice with new tools, research findings, models, services, practices, or alliances that will be widely used.
“Our goal is to develop a framework that can be used across academic library and consortial contexts to position these entities as leaders in and supporters of OER localization,” said Nancy O’Neill, Acting Director of the Kirwan Center and co-PI for the grant. “This work fits squarely within the NLG program mission, and we are delighted that we will have the opportunity to engage with library colleagues nationally and across Maryland in the process.”
Out of 118 NLG program proposals submitted this year, only 33 projects were funded, among them the USM planning grant.
In addition to advancing the field of OER from a narrow focus on cost savings toward a broader commitment to equity and student success, the USM project also intends to spur national dialogue about the roles that academic libraries and consortia can play in contributing to student success through the development and sustained support of relevant, constituency-oriented instructional materials and practices.
“Libraries and their consortia are playing very active roles in the proliferation and success of Open Educational Resources,” said Andrew K. Pace, Executive Director of the USMAI Library Consortium and co-PI for the grant. “We’re excited to help frame the importance of localizing these efforts and to clarify the important role for libraries and consortia within the larger open education and open scholarship ecosystem.”
This grant project is the latest initiative to come under the umbrella of the Maryland Open Source Textbook Initiative (M.O.S.T.)., which supports long-term, statewide scaling and sustainability of open educational resources (OER) to increase access, affordability, and achievement for Maryland higher education students across community colleges and private and public four-year institutions. The USM Kirwan Center leads M.O.S.T. in partnership with the Maryland Association of Community Colleges, the Maryland Independent College and University Association, MarylandOnline, and most recently, USMAI. Since 2014, M.O.S.T. has enabled faculty teaching 197 courses at 28 institutions across Maryland to switch to OER, resulting in more than $20.6 million in cumulative textbook cost savings for students.
Additional information about the USM William E. Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation can be found here.
Additional information about University System of Maryland and Affiliated Institutions Library Consortium can be found here.
Additional information on the Maryland Open Source Textbook Initiative can be found here.
The University System of Maryland (USM) has received a two-year planning grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), a federal agency charged with advancing, supporting, and empowering America’s museums, libraries, and related organizations through grantmaking, research, and policy development.
The USM grant, which will be led by the USM William E. Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation and University System of Maryland and Affiliated Institutions Library Consortium (USMAI), will articulate the role of academic libraries and library consortia in increasing the relevance of open educational resources (OER) through OER localization, defined as the practices and partnerships necessary to increase the relevance of OER for differing student populations, student learning needs, faculty interests, and institutional and community contexts.
The USM grant of $149,877 comes under the IMLS National Leadership Grants for Libraries program, which supports projects of national impact that address significant challenges and opportunities facing the library and archives fields and have the potential to advance theory and practice with new tools, research findings, models, services, practices, or alliances that will be widely used.
“Our goal is to develop a framework that can be used across academic library and consortial contexts to position these entities as leaders in and supporters of OER localization,” said Nancy O’Neill, Acting Director of the Kirwan Center and co-PI for the grant. “This work fits squarely within the NLG program mission, and we are delighted that we will have the opportunity to engage with library colleagues nationally and across Maryland in the process.”
Out of 118 NLG program proposals submitted this year, only 33 projects were funded, among them the USM planning grant.
In addition to advancing the field of OER from a narrow focus on cost savings toward a broader commitment to equity and student success, the USM project also intends to spur national dialogue about the roles that academic libraries and consortia can play in contributing to student success through the development and sustained support of relevant, constituency-oriented instructional materials and practices.
“Libraries and their consortia are playing very active roles in the proliferation and success of Open Educational Resources,” said Andrew K. Pace, Executive Director of the USMAI Library Consortium and co-PI for the grant. “We’re excited to help frame the importance of localizing these efforts and to clarify the important role for libraries and consortia within the larger open education and open scholarship ecosystem.”
This grant project is the latest initiative to come under the umbrella of the Maryland Open Source Textbook Initiative (M.O.S.T.)., which supports long-term, statewide scaling and sustainability of open educational resources (OER) to increase access, affordability, and achievement for Maryland higher education students across community colleges and private and public four-year institutions. The USM Kirwan Center leads M.O.S.T. in partnership with the Maryland Association of Community Colleges, the Maryland Independent College and University Association, MarylandOnline, and most recently, USMAI. Since 2014, M.O.S.T. has enabled faculty teaching 197 courses at 28 institutions across Maryland to switch to OER, resulting in more than $20.6 million in cumulative textbook cost savings for students.
Additional information about the USM William E. Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation can be found here.
Additional information about University System of Maryland and Affiliated Institutions Library Consortium can be found here.
Additional information on the Maryland Open Source Textbook Initiative can be found here.
