Exhibit A: Law Library Blog

Celebrating International Open Access Week with a Focus on OERs

Today marks the start of International Open Access Week 2024 (October 21-27)! This year's theme "Community over Commercialization," provides an opportunity to join together, take action, and raise awareness surrounding the importance of community control of knowledge sharing systems. As noted by SPARC, the organization that sponsors International Open Access Week, this theme "...encourages a candid conversation about which approaches to open scholarship prioritize the best interests of the public and the academic community...".

One way to engage with this year’s theme is to explore the adoption of Open Educational Resources (OERs) in law school courses. In fact, several members of the law faculty at Texas A&M Law are already engaging with OERs! For his Administrative Law course, Professor Dan Walters recently created his own OER textbook, Administrative Law: A Public Casebook for the American Public Law System. Click on the cover image below to check out the print-on-demand option for Professor Walter's casebook available from Amazon:

Watch the video below in which Law Library Director Lisa Goodman and Head of Scholarly Communications Aaron Retteen sit down with Professor Walters to talk about his experience using OERs!

Video Timestamps:

• What prompted your interest in using OERs in the classroom? [0:24]
• What is your experience using OERs in the classroom? [2:02] 
• How difficult was it to find an OER for your class? [3:30]
• What are the advantages of OER publishing platforms? [4:57]
• Do you recommend using OERs? [7:37]
• What are the OER publication options? [10:54]
• Was it important to you for students to have a physical copy? [13:00]
• What kind of feedback have you received from students? [15:03]

As Professor Walters mentioned, OERs are a great way to provide students with freely-available digital, and low-cost print, course materials.

Check out pictures of the display that was set up in the reading room of the Dee J. Kelly Law Library showcasing examples of popular OERs that have been professionally printed and bound:

For some additional resources, examples, and reading related to Open Access Week and OERs, check out the following links:

• General Information on Open Educational Resources (Texas A&M Law Library Resource Guide)

• American Contract Law for a Global Age (Professors Burge & Snyder, CALI)

• Patent Law: An Open-Access Casebook (OER Example Published on SSRN)

• West Texas A&M will no longer require students to pay for textbooks starting next fall (Texas Tribune) 

• University says It Won’t Charge for Textbooks. Professors Ask How. (Inside HigherEd)

• Do Law School Casebooks Have a Future? (Above the Law) 

• H2O Casebook Collection (platform for H2O’s collection of casebooks and legal documents)

• Law School Books Are Pretty Expensive… (recent relevant image on Above the Law)

• Technology Law Summer Webinar Series: Using OER (Open Educational Resources) in Law School Courses, (AALS Webinar)