Welcome to the Librarians as Open Advocates reading materials. This book will include the basic readings for the “Librarians as Open Educations Advocates” course designed by the LOEL Grant, from Washington State.

The purpose of this book, and the course, is to provide a space to practice the skills related to advocacy and course design for open education. The designers of this material are librarians from Washington State who have worked as partners in course design, project management, advocacy development, and material organization in many statewide and national projects where OER were created and designed. For more about the editors of this work please see the “About the Authors” page.

If you are interested in open education, but need some reminder about what it is, you are encouraged to visit the Open Washington website to explore open licensing. For a more in-depth reading about open education please see “An Open Education Reader” edited by Dr. David Wiley.

About the LOEL Grant

The Library as Open Education Leader (LOEL) grant project is a collaboration between the WA Library Leadership Council and College Librarians & Media Specialists (CLAMS) with support from the E-Learning Council and State Board for Community & Technical Colleges (SBCTC). The grant is funded by the WA Office of the Secretary of State and Institute of Museum and Library Services. This project supports cyclical planning for Open Education (OE) programs and advocacy, creates opportunities for librarians to become leaders in open education in Washington State, encourages collaboration between faculty and librarians on OE adoption, and increases the visibility and value of librarians at colleges.