Exploring OER textbooks for your courses? This guide provides links to existing OER textbooks to consider for your classes.
This guide is in-progress! More to come soon...
Questions? Email ELAC's OER Coordinator, Mandy Concoff Kronbeck at concofme@elac.edu
Libraries are under significant constraints when it comes to eBook licensing. When buying eBooks we also buy a specific license for the number of users that can access that eBook. Some eBooks only allow a single user to access the book at a time, some three. While harder to procure, there are some titles that are available to unlimited users.
You can use these books in your classes and still designate the course as ZTC. OER means freely available and flexible copyright licensing for reuse and remixing; however, in California, as long as the student is able to access things 100% freely then the course can be technically ZTC.
Use this spreadsheet (revised 5/2025) to find eBook titles that allow unlimited simultaneous users. For the ProQuest and EBSCO owned titles, sort by simultaneous users. Note that all titles in Gale eBooks, Oxford Very Short Introductions, and ProQuest and EBSCO Subscription Collections are available for unlimited simultaneous use.
Spreadsheet Key:
How can I find course-relevant ELAC Library eBooks?