{"id":30,"date":"2022-03-01T19:36:16","date_gmt":"2022-03-01T19:36:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/integrations.pressbooks.network\/oerstarterkit\/chapter\/case-study-lessons-learned-from-an-open-education-librarian\/"},"modified":"2022-05-19T20:06:46","modified_gmt":"2022-05-19T20:06:46","slug":"case-study-lessons-learned-from-an-open-education-librarian","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/integrations.pressbooks.network\/oerstarterkit\/chapter\/case-study-lessons-learned-from-an-open-education-librarian\/","title":{"raw":"Case Study 1: Lessons Learned from an Open Education Librarian","rendered":"Case Study 1: Lessons Learned from an Open Education Librarian"},"content":{"raw":"
\n

My Path to Becoming an Open Education Librarian<\/h2>\nMy OER journey began in 2013. I had recently transitioned from a library administration role as Special Assistant to the Dean to a position that combined liaison librarianship and project management. The Dean of UA Libraries asked me to serve on a campus-wide eContent Pilot, testing an eReading platform. That 2013\u201314 pilot was almost derailed by technology problems with the platform, but two great things resulted from the project:\n
    \n \t
  1. The library, bookstore, central IT, and teaching and learning center formed stronger partnerships through the pilot\u2019s challenges, and<\/li>\n \t
  2. OER\u2019s clear advantages over commercial\/proprietary content became evident.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nOur project team advised campus to scrap the eReading platform and pursue OER instead. In 2014, the library formally added OER coordination to my job description and I attended my first-ever OER conferences: OpenStax\u2019s CNX and the Open Education Conference. At that time, my primary job responsibilities were to lead the library\u2019s discovery service implementation and to serve as a business liaison librarian. I lobbied for the OER coordination role because I saw it as an unfilled need on campus, but the percentage of time dedicated to OER was never specified in my job description. In hindsight, I should have pushed for this.\n\nIn 2015, the University of Arizona joined the Open Education Network<\/a> (OEN) and I organized a full day of OER workshops and sessions for instructors, librarians, and instructional designers. Meanwhile in 2015, architecture liaison responsibilities were added to my job description.\n\nAs my passion for OER grew, I wanted to focus on it full time. In 2017, I had the opportunity to move from liaison librarianship to a newly created department, Content & Collections. I envisioned working primarily on OER and I adopted the title of Open Education Librarian. Instead, my job description increasingly expanded to include much more than OER. By the end of 2020, I also was responsible for oversight of Course Driven Acquisitions (our ebook program that serves hundreds of classes a semester), streaming video, the setup and administration of our Pressbooks site<\/a>, expanded web content, and supervisory duties. These responsibilities diluted the time I could devote to OER.\n\nAs our library engaged in Future State planning in 2020\u201321 by looking closely at work we should stop doing and where new\/additional resources need to be focused, I made the case for redirecting more personnel to course material initiatives. Our library\u2019s return on investment with these programs has been substantial. Additionally, these initiatives directly support goals related to student success, innovation, equity, inclusion, and global engagement in the university\u2019s strategic plan (University of Arizona 2021). In early 2021, library leadership decided to spin off some of my current responsibilities. Oversight of Course Driven Acquisitions and streaming video will be reassigned to others. I\u2019ll keep leading OER, open pedagogy, and Z-Degree\/Z-Major initiatives (the Z stands for zero course material costs), as well as managing Pressbooks, but I\u2019ve moved to the library\u2019s Research Engagement Department and realigned with scholarly communication.\n\nAdvocating for yourself and your OER program is critical work. Competition for limited resources in libraries is fierce. You\u2019ll need to develop allies, clearly communicate why this work is important and deserves prioritization, and demonstrate its impact. In this case study, I\u2019ll be blunt about my biggest hurdles and lessons learned. OER program management definitely has its challenges, but it\u2019s also the most rewarding and impactful library work I\u2019ve done.\n

    Biggest Challenges<\/h2>\n

    Self-Directed Learning<\/h3>\nWhen I graduated from library school in 2008, none of my courses covered copyright, fair use, scholarly communication, Creative Commons licenses, OER, or ebook licensing models. As I became more involved in OER program management, it became clear that I\u2019d need to educate myself. I turned to webinars, conferences, workshops, listservs, a Massive Open Online Course on copyright, and the Creative Commons Certificate for librarians. Newcomers can tap into a wealth of learning opportunities:\n