Open Educational Resources and the Library Discipline

Libraries and ZTC/LTC: Frequently Asked Questions

In California’s community colleges, most librarians are faculty and commonly teach courses related to the use of library resources, as well as courses related to information competency and media literacy.

Introduction to College Research (Butler, Sargent, and Smith, 2021) – Pressbooks; Ancillary Resources in Canvas Commons (CC BY) This book acknowledges our changing information landscape, covering key concepts in information literacy, including: algorithms and the attention economy, disinformation, information cynicism and information hygiene, fact-checking, source types, research topics, keyword choices and confirmation bias, search strategies, library databases, the ethical use of information, and citation.

The textbook and Canvas modules were created by a team of California Community College librarians (funded by the ASCCC OERI):

• Walter D. Butler (Pasadena City College)
• Aloha Sargent (Cabrillo College)
• Kelsey Smith (West Hills College Lemoore)
• Cynthia M. Cohen (Los Angeles Valley College)
• Cynthia Mari Orozco (East Los Angeles College)
• Xiaoyang Behlendorf (Los Angeles Valley College)

Information Literacy – Basic Research Skills (Withers, 2019); Information Literacy – Basic Research Skills (Withers, 2019) – in Libretexts (CC BY-NC-SA) This resource is designed to be used in the teaching of a one-unit information literacy course. It was written by faculty from San Diego City College who have described it as follows: “There are several good books out there but the least expensive costs a few lunches or a couple months’ trolley budget. The need seemed obvious for an Information Literacy OER for our students, so we wrote one…. The overarching approach:

• keep it at the community college level
• keep it short
• stick with the basics assuming the content would be supplemented by the depth of the classwork and assignments
• write it as the class is taught in that it would cover transferable skills and not be San Diego City College-specific
• write it as a textbook in that it does not follow my class schedule, but makes sense as a book
• do not use a single theme or research question for all the examples in the book, but rather use a variety in hopes that variety would hold interest and/or in hope at least one might resonate with each student
• create a title that says what it is and would be easily found by librarians as opposed to some creative title such as ‘It isn’t Rocket Science: what you need to know about research.

Foundations of Library Services (ASCCC OERI, 2022) (CC BY-SA) This textbook was developed with the intention to support customizability and allow instructors to adopt and adapt the materials to fit their own course needs through the use of an open license and open resources. Because of this, this textbook can be transferred fully or as chapters (modules). It is meant to be used as you (the instructor) see fit.

The textbook and Canvas modules were created by a team of California Community College librarians (funded by the ASCCC OERI):

• Walter Butler (Pasadena City College)
• Susan Hoang (Santa Ana College)
• Jaki King (Santa Ana College)
• Annie Knight (Santa Ana College)
• Ariane Le (Long Beach City College)
• Kolap Samel (Long Beach City College)
• Colin Williams (Long Beach City College)

Photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash

Using an OER resource that is missing from the list above? If so, please let us know.

This page last updated February 16, 2023.