Chambers Chat

Grants and training for using no/low cost textbooks

Dear Deans, Chairs, and Faculty Library Liaisons,

Greetings from the Chambers Library! I’ve been trying to give you a bit of a break since all the emails I sent you last fall about fajitas (and a few library things), but I did want to share a couple of grant opportunities for you and your faculty.
 

$50 Training Grants for Open Educational Resources (OER)

The Oklahoma State Regents' Online Consortium is offering a $50 grant to anyone who completes their free OER 101 training. Open educational resources (also known as OER or open-source materials) are materials for teaching or learning that are FREE to students (they are either in the public domain or have been released under a license that allows them to be freely used, changed, or shared with others). Please see the attached flyer for more information.
 

Grants Available for Faculty Using No-Cost Textbooks

Faculty teaching at UCO are eligible to apply for $500-2500 in grant funding to support the adoption and/or development of no-cost textbook projects (please see the attached flyer for more information). In addition to the training mentioned above, the Chambers Library has created an online OER guide to help you get started if you’re interested in reducing textbook costs for your students.
 

No-Cost Library Resources for Courses

And don’t forget that you can link to the Chambers Library’s digital books and articles, which are also FREE to you and your students! Please remember that books and articles work a little differently: multiple students can read an article at the same time, but some of the library’s eBooks only allow one reader at a time because we only own one “copy” (yes, I know that doesn’t make much sense with eBooks, but so far the publishers don’t care). If you need help using OER or the library’s digital resources, please feel free to email libraryresearch@uco.edu and our fabulous research librarians would be happy to work with you to find options.
 

Restaurant Recommendation

As I close, I feel like I need to mention food somehow since it was such a constant theme in my emails last fall, so here's a restaurant recommendation for the weekend: Cous Cous Café (6165 N May Ave, OKC). The vegetable tagine is amazing, and the lamb tagine is life-changing.
 

As always, if you feel that you received this email in error, please let me know and I will do my best to reroute it to the right person. I hope you have a great weekend!
 

Best,
Lee Anne

Lee Anne H. Paris, PhD
Director of Research & User Engagement
Max Chambers Library
E: lparis@uco.edu | O: 405-974-2880

Attachments and related links:

• OER 101 Completion Award Flyer (PDF)
• OSRHE Faculty OER Spring and Summer Course Grants (PDF)
• Open Education Resources (OER) - A Faculty Guide