Spreading the Word!
Librarians & OER
OER14, 29 April 2014
Dr. Beck Pitt
The Open University
Eleni Zazani
Birkbeck College
Nancy Graham
University of Roehampton

Background

DELILA April 2012
from a project to a CoP
1. Developing Educators Learning and Information Literacies for
Accreditation
2. Cross institutional project (Birmingham – LSE) to adapt digital and
IL resources to OER
3. Project website: http://delilaopen.wordpress.com

DELILA April 2012
from a project to a CoP
1. To gather information about librarians’ sharing of IL teaching
material
2. 101 responses from UK, Europe, US and beyond
3. Findings indicate closed sharing
4. Willingness to share openly but don’t know where to start
5. Available at http://delilaopen.wordpress.com/il-oer-survey/

DELILA April 2012 August 2012
from a project to a CoP
1. One day event at Birmingham
2. Several attendees formed committee
3. Kick off meeting November 2012
4. Aim: to support UK librarians in sharing openly
5. 1st Event at Uni of Surrey 30th May 2013

DELILA April 2012 August 2012 CoPILOT
from a project to a CoP
Community of Practice for Information Literacy Online Teaching
Run 2 events (Surrey, Glasgow), participate in conferences &
collaborate with IFLA, UNESCO, OERRHUB, etc across sectors
Mailing list IL-OERS@jiscmail.ac.uk
Twitter: @CoPILOT2013
Website: http://www.cilip.org.uk/information-literacy-group/about/copilot

DELILA April 2012 August 2012 CoPILOT
from a project to a CoP
Lead by example, share ideas, practice & knowledge, surface case
studies, advocates of openness.
Mailing list IL-OERS@jiscmail.ac.uk
Twitter: @CoPILOT2013
Website: http://www.cilip.org.uk/information-literacy-group/about/copilot
Present

• 2-year research project based at The Open University (UK)
• Funded by William & Flora Hewlett Foundation
• Aiming to build the most comprehensive picture of OER impact
• Eleven research hypotheses
• Collaboration model across different educational sectors
• Fellowship Scheme
• Global reach but with a US focus
• Practicing openness: CC-BY licensed research instruments / SOO Course /
Impact Map
OER Research Hub
oerresearchhub.org
#oerrhub @OER_Hub

Keyword Hypothesis
Performance OER improve student performance/satisfaction
Openness People use OER differently from other online materials
Access OER widen participation in education
Retention OER can help at-risk learners to finish their studies
Reflection OER use leads educators to reflect on their practice
Finance OER adoption brings financial benefits for students/institutions
Indicators Informal learners use a variety of indicators when selecting OER
Support Informal learners develop their own forms of study support
Transition OER support informal learners in moving to formal study
Policy OER use encourages institutions to change their policies
Assessment Informal assessments motivate learners using OER

Collaboration Model
Collaboration Model

Collaboration Model
Collaboration Model

OER Impact Map

OER Impact Map
http://oermap.org

OER Impact Map
http://oermap.org

Methodology

Librarian Questionnaire

Research Questions
OER Research Hub hypotheses:
OER improve student performance/satisfaction
People use OER differently from other online materials
OER use leads educators to reflect on their practice*
OER adoption brings financial benefits for students/institutions
OER use encourages institutions to change their policies*
Special areas of interest (CoPILOT):
Encourage creation and sharing of OER
Curating & sustaining OER
Closing training gaps

Background to Surveys (CoPILOT)
32
57
101
521
218
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Surveys
Librarians and OER
De Beer, 2012
Bueno-de-la-Fuente, Robertson, &
Boon, 2012
Graham & Secker, 2012
Taylor & Francis, 2013
OERRHUB, CoPILOT, 2014
Source: Zazani, Eleni. The Emerging Information Professional: 21st Century
attitudes, technologies and practices. Chandos publishing (forthcoming)

32
57
101
211
14
521
4
218
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Librarians & openness (OA & OER)
De Beer, 2012 Bueno-de-la-Fuente, Robertson, & Boon, 2012
Graham & Secker, 2012 TBI Communications on behalf of InTech, 2012
Harris, 2012 Taylor & Francis, 2013
Lawson, 2013 MA Thesis Gregson & Hatzipanagos, 2013
OER Research Hub & COPILOT, 2014
Source: Zazani, Eleni. The Emerging Information Professional: 21st Century
attitudes, technologies and practices. Chandos publishing (forthcoming)

Findings

Librarian Surveys
Two surveys launched during Open Access week (21-25 October 2014).
Both Surveys closed 2 January 2014.
General Librarians
197 respondents
128 of these work F/T or P/T as a Librarian
2 invalid responses, 126 valid responses
Co-PILOT Librarians
115 respondents
92 respondents work F/T or P/T as a Librarian
0 invalid responses, 92 valid responses*

Librarian Sample
• 218 respondents who work F/T or P/T as a Librarian
• 81.0% Female (n=175), 17.6% Male (n=38) and 1.4% Transgender (n=3)
• 47.4% of respondents live in the UK (n=102), 40.0% in the USA (n=86), 3.3%
in Ghana (n=7), 3.3% in Canada (n=7) and 6.0% R.O.W. (n=13) including
Botswana, South Africa, Italy, Lebanon, Czech Republic, Tanzania
• Nearly 90% of respondents have English as their first spoken language
(89.4%, n=193)
• Over 85% of respondents have a Postgraduate/Graduate School University
Degree (87.4%, n=188)
• Over a quarter of respondents had worked as a librarian for more than 20
years (25.3%, n=50)

OER Behaviours & Perspectives

Librarian Overview
In the last year…
• Over half of respondents have published a blog post (50.5%, n=110)
• Nearly 70% of respondents have shared an image online
(68.8%, n=150)
• Almost a third of respondents contributed to a Wiki (30.3%, n=66)
• Almost half of respondents contributed to an Internet Forum
(49.1%, n=107)
• 55.0% of respondents have downloaded a Podcast (n=120) but only
8.3% have recorded and uploaded a Podcast (n=18)

Librarian Overview
Nearly 80% of respondents have used OER (78.7%, n=170)
• Over 85% of respondents said that they would be more likely to
select a particular resource when searching for OER if it had been
created/uploaded by a reputable/trusted institution or person
(87.4%, n=180)
• Top three challenges faced when using OER:
Knowing where to find resources (60.6%, n=120)
Finding resources of a sufficiently high quality (60.1%, n=119)
Finding suitable resources in my subject area (56.1%, n=111)

Librarian Overview
• Main purposes for using OER in the context of Librarian role:
To help find available content for learning, teaching or training
(72.5%, n=124) and/or to get new ideas and inspiration
(72.5%, n=124)
• Nearly 70% of respondents strongly agreed or agreed that they
make use of a wider range of multimedia in their Librarian role as a
consequence of their use of OER (13.1%, n=19 & 56.6%, n=82
respectively)
• Top three types of OER used for teaching/training:

Perceptions of the Impact of OER on students
and institutions
• Over 50% of respondents think that their institution benefits
financially by using OER (53.5%, n=85)
• Over 40% of respondents don’t know whether their institution
benefits financially by using OER (40.9%, n=65)
• Over half of respondents don’t know whether their students have
saved money by using OER (51.2%, n=83)
• Nearly 40% of respondents believe their students have saved money
by using OER (37.7%, n=61)
“We actually did a study recently
that showed a 30% reduction in
textbook costs after a big push to
move to open access textbooks.”

Creating OER and measuring its
impact

Creative Commons Licensing
• Over 70% of respondents had seen the CC logo and knew what it meant
(70.6%, n=154)
• 17.0% of respondents had never seen it (n=37)
• 12.4% of respondents had seen it but didn’t know what it meant (n=27)
• Over 70% of respondents think that open licensing is very important or
important to them when using resources in their teaching (34.4%, n=72 and
37.8%, n=79 respectively)

The Use and Creation of OER
Respondents were given a definition of Open Educational Resources
(UNESCO), and asked to tells us how they had used/created OER.
• 31.9% of respondents have created OER for study or teaching (n=69)
• 14.8% of respondents have created resources themselves and published
them on an open license (n=32)
If respondents told us they had created OER, they were asked two further
questions:
1. How they share the OER they create
2. If they measure the impact of OER they create

Please tell us more about how you share the open educational
resources you create
“Upload to
YouTube”
“Via the NHS e-learning
repository and from our
organisational website.”

Do you measure the impact of the open educational
resources you create?
Of the respondents who create OER for study or teaching and/or create OER
and publish them on an open license, nearly 30% told us they measure the
impact of the OER they create (29.7%, n=22)
• 60.8% of respondents who create OER do not measure the impact of the
OER they create (n=45)
• Nearly 10% of respondents who create OER don’t know if they measure the
impact of the OER they create (9.5%, n=7)
Question around what constitutes “measuring impact”: One respondent who
answered “Don’t Know” noted:

Please tell us more about how you measure the impact of the
open educational resources you create
Respondents who told us
how they currently
measure impact:
60.9% look at
statistics/usage/analytics
(n=14)
13.0% Feedback (n=3)
26.1% Both analytics and
feedback (n=6)
“At a rather trivial level, I check
how many times resources are
accessed.”

Are there any examples, positive or negative, of your
experiences of curating open educational resources that you
would like to tell us about?
“As part of our work in S2 English, we ask pupils to write an entry for one of the school
blogs, based on their current novel / drama study. Part of the success criteria is to use
Creative Commons images as part of their articles. Has led to a much wider
understanding of how they can use online materials, pupils actively seeking out public
domain or CC materials, and greater knowledge of their own rights.”

Policy and Openness

Are you aware of any changes to policy and/or practice
that have taken place at your institution as a result of participation in OER
pilots and/or programs?
8.6% Yes (n=14)
55.2% No (n=90)
36.2% Don’t Know (n=59)
“The Training department of the Centre is
trying to adapt some of the courses to suit
African/local context.”
“OER strategy document… [and]
institutional repository.”
What kinds of practices and policies, if any, does your
institution have in relation to OER?
“Until quite recently, we had a fund to
support open access publishing…” “None that I am aware of. There is
some resistance to sharing learning
resources on the part of some
academics. Some don’t even want their
reading lists to be open…”
“The University
Senate has endorsed
an Open Access
Policy.”

In the context of your role as librarian, what kinds of
policies would help you to be more open?
“If open licenses were mandated for all materials the college produces. If
administrators were more understanding of licensing and open source. My institution is
still in the habit of defaulting to expensive corporate products even when superior open
ones are available. It’s infuriating.”
“Recognition for the impact of
OER’s we create … This might
incentivise us to create
resources which are more
reusable and can be exploited
by the wider academic
community instead of
everybody reinventing the
wheel for their local users.”

Summary

Lessons Learnt
Next Steps
Effective Collaboration

Summary of Results
Librarians and Open Educational Resources
• 87.4% of librarians said that they would be more likely to select a
particular resource when searching for OER if it had been
created/uploaded by a reputable/trusted institution or person (n=180)
• Evidence shows that many librarians working in “silos”
• Preliminary results: more forthcoming
• What do you think? Do these findings resonate with you?
• We need you! Looking for YOUR best examples of impact...
• Help us build the most comprehensive picture of the impact of OER by
contributing your evidence to the Impact Map

Bibliography
Bueno-de-la-Fuente, G. (2012). The roles of libraries and information professionals in open educational resources (OER)
initiatives.. Available from: http://publications.cetis.ac.uk/2012/492. [Accessed 23 November 2013].
De Beer, T. (2012). SCORE library survey report. Available from: http://www.open.ac.uk/score/news/score-library-survey-report.
[Accessed 23 November 2013].
Graham, N., and Secker, J. (2012). Librarians, information literacy and open educational resources: report of a survey. Available
from: http://delilaopen.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/findingsharingoers_reportfinal1.pdf. [Accessed 23 November 2013].
Harris, S. (2012). Moving towards an open access future: the role of academic libraries. London. Available from:
http://www.uk.sagepub.com/repository/binaries/pdf/Library-OAReport.pdf. [Accessed 23 November 2013].
Taylor & Francis. (2013). Facilitating access to free online resources: challenges and opportunities for the library community.
Available from: http://www.tandf.co.uk/libsite/pdf/TF-whitepaper-free-resources.pdf. [Accessed 23 November 2013].
TBI Communications on behalf of InTech. (2012). Assessing the role of librarians in an Open Access world. Croatia. Available
from: http://www.intechopen.com/js/ckeditor/kcfinder/upload/files/Role of the Librarian_Survey_Findings_Jun12.pdf. [Accessed
23 November 2013].
Zazani, Eleni. The Emerging Information Professional: 21st Century attitudes, technologies and practices. Chandos publishing
(forthcoming)
Open Definition on Licensing (http://opendefinition.org/guide/)
Creative Commons logo: http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/presskit/icons/cc.large.png

Thanks for listening!
oerresearchhub.org
http://oermap.org
Twitter: @OER_Hub @BeckPitt
@EleniZazani @msnancygraham

in service of The Open University