TRAILS joined the Open Textbook Network, an alliance of hundreds of colleges, universities, and consortia partners working together to advance the use of open textbooks in higher education, in the fall of 2018. Textbook affordability is a major concern on college campuses throughout the United States and this is an exciting partnership that allows us to provide member libraries with tools and services that will assist them in building sustainable open textbook programs on their campuses. TRAILS membership means that all of our member libraries will have access to OTN resources and trainings.
There will be 2 OTN training workshops offered. The first is on Feb. 1st at MSU-Boz and the 2nd will be next fall at UM-Missoula exact date tbd. Both sessions will be about creating a community of practice, centered around building OER learning content, for affordable learning in Montana. The workshops will be free and attendees may be faculty, deans, library directors, library colleagues, curricula designers, or anyone who wishes to learn about how to implement OER for higher ed in MT.