ACRL joined a broad coalition of more than 90 education, library, technology, public interest, and legal organizations in a letter calling on the White House to take administrative action to ensure federally funded educational materials are made available as Open Educational Resources (OER) that are free to use, share, and improve.
The call comes in response to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s request for ideas to strengthen the U.S. Open Government National Action Plan. The executive action envisioned by the coalition would build upon the Administration’s strong leadership in advancing public access to publicly funded resources with a strong Executive Branch-wide policy for the open licensing of educational, training, and instructional materials created with federal funds.
In its letter, the coalition outlined five core principles for Administration policy on this issue:
- Adopt a broad definition of educational materials;
- Provide free access via the Internet;
- Create conditions for resources that enable reuse;
- Require prompt implementation; and
- Regular reporting of progress and results.
Join the call for opening up taxpayer funded educational materials by tweeting with hashtag #OERUSA.