OER, NOLO, and the University Library

We want to help you find no- and low-cost readings for your students! 

First, a few definitions:

• An OER is an Open Educational Resource, meaning it has been created and published completely free online. It's open to anyone with an internet connection.
• No- or low-cost (NOLO) course materials may be a combination of OERs plus books and journals the library already provides. In other words, since the library is already paying for many academic resources, they are not open or free, but they are free to members of the UMass Lowell community.

How does this actually work? You may have a set list of readings and a textbook you already know you want to use. Contact us because:

• We may already own the articles and books, and we can help you find permalinks for you to add to Blackboard
• Depending on costs, we may also be able to purchase journals and books from your reading list, for use in your class. (We wish we could purchase every book! But some electronic textbooks cost in the thousands of dollars, so we may be limited in what we can provide.)
• We can help you discover new titles (either freely available as OERs online, or available for us to purchase) that could take the place of your current textbook or readings, that would be no- or low-cost to your students

To create no- or low-cost reading lists, you can:

• Explore NOLO materials in library collections
• Explore reliable sites for OERs available on the open web
• Create your own OER and publish it at UMass Lowell