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Finding OER - START HERE
Below is a selected list of resources to help you find OER. Please do not hesitate to reach out to your subject librarian for more assistance with finding OER.
Start by searching the resources listed in the Repositories & Referatories and Collections sections. Additional information, such as resources to find open courseware and open books are presented as subpages of this page.
Repositories & Referatories
Use these search engines to assist you with finding OER
- Mason OER MetafinderGeorge Mason University's cross-repository OER search tool.
- MERLOTMERLOT (Multimedia Education Resource for Learning and Online Teaching) is an online repository and international consortium of institutions of higher education, industry partners, professional organizations and individuals. MERLOT identifies, peer reviews, organizes, and makes available existing online learning resources in a range of academic disciplines for use by higher education faculty and students. The University of North Dakota has partnered with MERLOT since 2008.
- OASISOpenly Available Sources Integrated Search (OASIS) is a discovery tool that searches open content from over 110 different sources.
Collections
Search within these collections of OER material to assist you with finding open resources to support your teaching.
- BC Open CampusA leader in supporting the production of open textbooks and other OER through financial support from the Canadian government and the Hewlett Foundation. Also provides a useful search tool for hundreds of open textbooks and links to available ancillary resources, faculty reviews, and editable files.
- LibreTexts ProjectInitiated at the University of California, Davis, and is supported by a grant from the Department of Education Open Textbook Pilot Project. Its "Explore the Libraries" tab features OER in a range of subjects plus workforce materials. Ancillary materials vary by subject but include laboratory experiments, case studies, simulations, demonstrations and techniques, and interactive fossils. Features an OER remixer to support the adaptation of OER texts.
- OER CommonsContains teaching and learning materials that you may freely use and reuse at no cost. Unlike fixed, copyrighted resources, OER have been authored or created by an individual or organization that chooses to retain few, if any, ownership rights. In some cases, that means you can download a resource and share it with colleagues and students. In other cases, you may be able to download a resource, edit it in some way, and then re-post it as a remixed work. How do you know your options? OER often have a Creative Commons or GNU license to let you know how the material may be used, reused, adapted, and shared.
- OpenStaxNonprofit organization affiliated with Rice University that produces openly licensed textbooks for college and Advanced Placement (AP) courses. OpenStax textbooks are among the most commonly used open textbooks across the country and may offer free ancillary materials for instructors.
- Open Textbook LibraryA growing catalog of free, peer-reviewed, and openly-licensed textbooks supported by the Center for Open Education and the Open Education Network at the University of Minnesota. All textbooks are original, freely licensed, available as a portable file, and used by or affiliated with an academic institution.
Open Courseware & Resources
Open Courseware
Search these resources for OER that strive to encompass an entire course or function as a course in their own right.
- BoundlessOpen access courses in a variety of subjects maintained by the Lumen Learning platform
- MIT Open CoursewareContains over 2,400 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) open courses including syllabi, videos, lectures, assignments, and exams. OpenCourseWare also includes resources to support educators exploring open education.
- National Science Digital LibraryOpen resources from the National Science Foundation on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education, from preschool to adult education.
- OpenLearnHome of free learning resources developed by the Open University (British research university). Offerings range from short courses to interactive games to audiovisual resources.
- Teaching CommonsShowcase of top-notch open educational resources from leading colleges and universities, curated by librarians and their institutions. The Teaching Commons includes open access textbooks, course materials, lesson plans, multimedia, and more.
Open Scholarly Resources
These assorted resources include collections of multimedia, directories, dissertations, and more.
- Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)Gathering of image, text, video and sound collections sourced from libraries and archives across the U.S. Also home to the Palace Bookshelf, a collection of thousands of open access eBooks.
- Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR)OpenDOAR is a curated directory of academic open access repositories in which you can search for repositories or within repository contents. Originated as a collaboration between the University of Nottingham and Lund University and managed in part by Jisc, a British not-for-profit IT service provider.
- OAIsterA union catalog from WorldCat of records representing open access resources worldwide that was built using the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH). Updates quarterly and features multimedia and theses alongside standard books and articles.
- Open Access Theses and Dissertation (OATD)Resource for finding open access graduate theses and dissertations published around the world. Metadata (information about the theses) comes from over 1100 colleges, universities, and research institutions.
- ROAD - Directory of Open Access Scholarly ResourcesISSN-managed resource that covers different types of online scholarly resources: journals, conferences proceedings, academic repositories, monographic series, and scholarly blogs.
Open Scholarly Books
Search for and read academic eBooks from open access publishers.
- Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB)Discovery tool that provides access to peer-reviewed scholarly books and helps find trustworthy open access publishers.
- InTechOpenLeading science, technology and medicine open access book publisher. Features an index of their books and book series, which are available to read and download.
- NOBANoba is a free, online platform that provides psychological science textbooks and educational materials licensed under the Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 International License. Users may reuse, redistribute, and remix the content to suit their needs.
- Open Access eBooks on JSTOROffers ebooks from respected presses and top scholarly publishers, including Brill, Cornell University Press, De Gruyter, and University of California Press. Also includes open access journals, Artstor's public collections, and select research reports.
- OpenBook PublishersIndependent open access scholarly press that publishes textbooks, monographs, anthologies, and more. Authors are charged nothing to publish and retain full rights to their work.
Open Access Articles
Explore these indexes to find open access scholarly articles.
- Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (BASE)BASE is a search engine for academic web resources operated by Bielefeld University Library. Not all contents are open access-- about 60% of resources are freely accessible to anyone. BASE is a registered Open Archives Initiative service provider, and its metadata index can thus be integrated into local database infrastructure.
- COnnecting REpositories (CORE)Not-for-profit service that runs an aggregator of open access research papers collected from repositories and journals. Other services offered include an API for accessing research paper metadata and browser extensions to support the discovery and recommendation of articles.
- Digital Commons NetworkCollection of free, full-text scholarly articles from global universities and colleges that is curated by university librarians. Users can browse subjects through a multicolored discipline wheel or follow specific authors or publications to receive monthly updates on activity in their field.
- Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)Independent, British non-profit index of open access journals from around the world. All of DOAJ's data is freely available to users.
Simulations & Virtual Labs
Try these resources to find online simulations of science experiments.
- LearnChemECollection of educational resources for chemical engineering prepared by the University of Colorado Boulder. Featured resources include screencasts, simulations, self-study modules, and virtual labs. Some simulations require downloading the free Wolfram Player.
- Open Educational Resources: Simulations and Virtual LabsA wide variety of virtual STEM resources curated by the Arthur Lakes Library at the Colorado School of Mines to support courses that employ OER.
- PhET Interactive SimulationsUniversity of Colorado Boulder project that creates free simulations for physics, earth science, chemistry, biology, and math classes. All featured simulations are individually tested and open source. Simulations are coded in HTML5 and can be embedded in other media, downloaded, or run online.
Government Documents
Many government documents are copyright-free and in the public domain. Consequently, such documents can be used as OER. To learn more about government documents at the Chester Fritz Library, please consult this LibGuide.
Discipline-Specific Collections
Disciplinary Repositories
These resources gather collections of OER that are pertinent to particular academic disciplines.
- Open Textbooks for EngineeringThe Engineering Library Division of the American Society for Engineering Education has compiled this list of resources dedicated to engineering OER. The list features general engineering OER plus OER subdivided by engineering discipline.
- Disciplinary Repositories | Open Access DirectoryList of open access preprint and postprint depositories alphabetized by field, maintained by the Open Access Directory and hosted by Simmons College. Unless otherwise noted, listed depositories accept contributions regardless of the author's institutional affiliation.
- AgEcon SearchCollects, indexes and distributes research in agriculture and applied economics. Sponsored by the University of Minnesota and an international advisory board, its contents range from journal articles to dissertations to conference presentations.
- Digital Commons NetworkCurated by university librarians and their supporting institutions, it includes a collection of free, full-text scholarly articles from around the world. Users can browse academic disciplines and their subfields through a color wheel interface.
- PubMed CentralOpen archive of biomedical and life sciences literature from the U.S. National Institutes of Health's National Library of Medicine.
- Social Science Research Network (SSRN)SSRN is an open access research platform intended for sharing early stage research and communicating findings. Despite its name, SSRN features research from outside the social sciences in the physical sciences and humanities.
Open Data
- SPARC | Open DataExplanation of what open data is and why it is valuable. Link at the end of the page for "US Federal Data Sharing Resource" contains data sharing requirements for American federal agencies including NIH, NSF, and USDA.
- Registry of Research Data Repositories (re3data)The Registry of Research Data Repositories, funded by the German Research Foundation, is one of the largest registry of data repositories available on the web. Covers a range of disciplines.
- Open Data Repositories | Open Access DirectoriesList of open data repositories organized by subject, maintained by the Open Access Directory, and hosted by Simmons College. Note that some repositories may be open in only certain respects.
- Data.govThe United States government's official collection of hundreds of thousands of open datasets, ranging from the county to federal level. Datasets can be sorted by source organization.
How to Find Open Access Articles in Particular Subscription-based Databases
- SpringerLink This link opens in a new windowSearch – look for orange OA button in results.
Go to journal page and click on OA articles – then search those results – click on "Share article" to get a link. - PubMed This link opens in a new windowMethod 1: Filter results to: Free full text.
Method 2: Click on "FREE Article" in search results.
Method 3: Search PubMed Central (PMC), then click on "Open access" to filter results. - Project MUSE This link opens in a new windowDatabase of humanities, technology, education, health, and social sciences scholarly content.
- Can't search for OA content, but search results are labeled with an OA button.
- The search option "Only content I have access to" includes OA results.
- OA journals on Project MUSE: RSF: The Russell - Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences; Constitutional Studies.
- OA books on Project MUSE include 20 books from Cornell University Press.
Images
General Image Collections
Find Creative Commons-licensed stock photos and images in the public domain. Please also consult our LibGuide regarding images to discover general advice and resources to support image searching.
- Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)Gathering of image, text, video and sound collections sourced from libraries and archives across the U.S. Allows searching for images only and limiting results to specific usage licenses.
- Internet Archive Image SearchDigital images uploaded by Archive users, which range from maps to astronomical imagery to photographs of artwork. Many of these images are available for free download.
- OpenverseSuccessor to Creative Commons Search that searches open APIs and aggregates results from public image and audio repositories into a single catalogue.
- PexelsFree stock photo and video website. Images on the site can be used without attribution and for commercial purposes.
- PixabayWebsite dedicated to sharing royalty-free images, stock photos, GIFs, et cetera. The Pixabay license permits sharing images sourced from the website without attribution and for commercial purposes but prohibits the sale of posted images without meaningful alterations by the vendor.
- Wikimedia CommonsMedia file repository that shares public domain and freely licensed educational content. It is the common repository for media employed by the Wikimedia Foundation and its projects.
Art, Museum, and Archival Images
Explore the assortment of open images made available through museums and other cultural institutions.
- Flickr CommonsAssortment of cultural institutions that have agreed to share and post images on Flickr that have "no known copyright restrictions".
- Getty MuseumPublic domain images within the Getty collection are freely available for download through their Open Content Program. Note that most images from the present century and several images from the 20th century are still copyrighted and therefore cannot be downloaded. Users can filter search results for "Open Content".
- Library of Congress Digitized ImagesHistorical graphics and photographs available for free use and download.
- National Gallery of Art Open AccessImages in the permanent collection of the National Gallery that are believed to be within the public domain are available for direct download. Conducting an advanced search allows filtering images that are available for download.
- New York MetAll public domain images in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection are free to use, share, and remix without restriction (Creative Commons Zero license).
- New York Public Library (NYPL) Digital Collections"Living database" of digitized items from the library's collections. Note that there are some copyright restrictions on particular objects.
- Smithsonian Open AccessDigital images from the Smithsonian Institute's collection that have been licensed Creative Commons Zero (CC0), making them free to download, transform, and share.
Government Agency Images
Find public domain images created by the U.S. government.
- NASA Image & Video LibraryThe media library of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is publicly accessible and copyright free.
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Organization (NOAA) Photo LibraryImages contributed by NOAA staff that reflect the agency's work monitoring the condition of the United States' seas and skies. All images are within the public domain.
- U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Image GalleryDigital photographs produced by the USDA Research Service Office of Communications, with agriculture related subjects.
Diverse Image Collections
Use these resources to find Creative Commons-licensed images of people underrepresented by standard stock photo collections.
- Center for Better AgingCreative Commons zero (CC0) licensed images of adults over 50 years old that avoid stereotypes of the elderly
- Disabled and HereFree-to-use and downloadable stock photos of disabled people of color of various body types, sexual orientations, and gender identities.
- Gender Spectrum Collection: Stock Photos Beyond the BinaryStock photo library of images of transgender and non-binary people in everyday settings, absent stereotypes and clichés.
- Images of EmpowermentStock photos of people (primarily women) from the Global South at home and at work. Supported by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.
- NappyHigh-resolution stock photos of Black and Brown people, all licensed Creative Commons Zero (CC0).
- Natural Women CollectionCanva gallery of free-to-use images of women typically underrepresented in stock photo collections.
Other Image Search Tools
Employ these resources to help find (or create!) open access images.
- Google ImagesIn order to search for open images via Google Images, first select "Tools", then "Usage Rights". You can then choose to limit the results to images with "Creative Commons licenses" or "commercial & other licenses".
- HumaaansMix-and-match vector graphics to create simple illustrations of people. Graphics are licensed Creative Commons Zero (CC0).
- Open PeepsLibrary of hand-drawn mix & match vector illustrations to create avatars and characters. All content is licensed Creative Commons Zero (CC0).
- Tin EyeTinEye is a reverse image search engine and thus determines where an image came from, how it is being used, if modified versions of the image exist, or if there is a higher resolution version. To use, you can upload a file from your computer or give a URL to a graphic file on the web.
Medical Image Collections
These specialized resources can help users locate open access images in medical fields.
- MedPixFree online database of medical images, teaching cases, and clinical topics from the National Library of Medicine. Images can be searched by disease category, organ system, and patient profile. Includes CEs and quizzes.
- OPENi Biomedical Image Search EngineNational Library of Medicine service that locates images (including charts, graphs, clinical images, etc.) found in PubMed Central open access articles and selected biomedical image collections. Search with keywords or with image file (select the camera icon in the search bar).