AV整氈窒

 

The future is open

- November 27, 2018

Cover art for "Environmental Science: A Canadian Perspective."
Cover art for "Environmental Science: A Canadian Perspective."

EDITOR'S NOTE: The book launch mentioned in this article has been postponed due to Dal's power outage and campus closure on Thursday. It will be resheduled for a later date.

泭Dal Libraries is launching its first in-house produced open textbook, by renowned conservation biologist and AV整氈窒 faculty member Bill Freedman (19502015).

The production of this open textbook is a celebration of the legacy of Bill Freedman, and an exploration of new possibilities to provide open access to scholarly resources at no cost to the reader, says Donna Bourne-Tyson, AV整氈窒s University Librarian.泭 泭

An open textbook is a textbook that has been published under an open copyright license and made available online freely to students, faculty, and members of the public. Most open textbooks are digital in format as there are fewer costs associated with digital publication. A digital format is also easier for people to access regardless of their location.泭

This is the first open textbook the Libraries have produced as part of its . Under the umbrella of the Digital Scholarship Initiative, the Dal Libraries offers services that include online journal publishing and hosting (OJS), eTextbook hosting, digital collections metadata development, and other related initiatives.

Thinking digital


As the digital scholarship librarian for the AV整氈窒 Libraries, Geoff Brown is the point person for much of this work, including the production of this open textbook.

Its very satisfying to be a part of this innovative project, said Geoff. Providing access to information is what we in the Libraries strive to do and removing barriers like cost for a textbook is one more way we achieve that.

Geoff worked on the production of the textbook throughout the summer. The content came to him in the form of Microsoft Word files. The first thing he did was remove the many images, figures, and tables in the document. Next, he put the text into an open publishing system called Pressbooks. Finally, he put the images back in.

Open textbooks differ greatly from commercially published textbooks. Commercial publishers use digital rights management to control distribution of their publications. Our goal is to welcome as wide a distribution as possible of the textbook weve produced, said Ann Barrett, Associate University Librarian for Scholarly Communications.

Environmental Science: a Canadian Perspective泭is available in , AV整氈窒s institutional repository. You can also find it in Novanet, the union catalogue for all Nova Scotia post-secondary institutions and in WorldCat, a catalogue of the collections of 72,000泭libraries in 170 countries and territories. Next steps for distributing the textbook include reaching out to other Canadian open textbook initiatives so more Canadian universities will know about it.

Throughout the production of this textbook the Libraries have been in close contact with George-Anne Merrill, Bills wife. After Bill passed, the Dal Libraries acquired his papers and digital files for preservation in the Archives.

"Thanks to George-Annes willingness to trust us with this project, we are now able to share Bills work with the world, says Michael Moosberger, associate university librarian, archives, special Collections, and records Management; and university archivist.

LAUNCH OF DALHOUSIE LIBRARIES' FIRST OPEN TEXTBOOK

You are cordially invited to the launch of the AV整氈窒 Libraries' first open textbook, Environmental Science: a Canadian Perspective by renowned conservation biologist Bill Freedman (19502015).

Thursday November 29, 3 PM

Biology Lounge, Fifth floor, Life Sciences Centre

RSVP: marlo.mackay@dal.ca