The Council of Australian University Librarians is keen on open-access texts, in part because commercial editions can be beyond the resources of students

In February CAUL announced a two-year pilot, for participating universities to publish four titles in “priority disciplines” (CMM February 16). And now there are small grants  ($34 000 in total funds) for 15 teams led by academics at nine Australian universities and Victoria U of Wellington to publish. Disciplines include health science, law, sociology, psychology, business, languages, education, science, statistics and Indigenous studies.

There’s also new guide for people to “confidently find, use, or even create open educational resources” 

It’s by a team at the RMIT library, Julian Blake, Jane Halson, Ian Kolk, Anne Lennox, Stuart Moffat, Frank Ponte, Rebecca Rata and Carrie Thomas.

Open education resources, provide students with “digital learning opportunities in the form of open texts, open images, open courseware and self-assessment tools, and can reduce the cost of study by removing financial burden.”

It’s from (how it could it be otherwise?) RMIT Open Press.