Finding OERs via the Library
You can search the Library for Open Access (OA) resources, which include OERs. These are generally free to copy and distribute in unadapted forms.
To find an OA resource, enter your search terms in Library Search. To the left of your results, select "Open Access".
To search for databases that include OERs:
- Visit our Databases page
- In the menu on the left hand side, select Open Access, OERs and Copyright Friendly Resources
If you are looking specifically for OERs, see our multidisciplinary and subject-specific lists of resources below.
Faculty Select provides OERs and DRM-free ebooks. Simply search by topic, title or author.
Once you've located the item you want, you can make the following requests:
- Include the course friendly link in a My Unit Readings list (see Using OERs for more details)
- Ask the Library to purchase an unlimited user ebook.
Faculty Select includes DRM-free titles from:
- EBSCO Unlimited User frontlist eBooks (with DRM protections)
- Taylor and Francis DRM-free e-books
- Wiley DRM-free e-books
- Cambridge DRM-free e-books
- OASISOpenly Available Sources Integrated Search (OASIS) currently searches open content including textbooks, course materials, videos and interactive simulations from 114 sources.
- The Mason OER Metafinder (MOM)Searches OER repositories such as DOAB, OASIS and MIT OpenCourseWare along with sites like HathiTrust and Project Gutenberg.
Finding OERs by subject area
Most of these multidisciplinary repositories can be searched or browsed by subject area. OERs from the sources below are generally available under a Creative Commons (CC) license, which allows for distribution, remix and adaptation (e.g., CC BY, CC BY-NC-SA). However, you will need to check the license conditions of each resource to determine how it can be used.
- ANU Press The first and largest open-access university press in the world.
- BASE - Open Access Documents Operated by Bielefeld University Library, BASE is one of the world's most voluminous search engines especially for academic web resources.
- BCcampus OpenEd A curated selection of open educational resources (OER) by BCcampus.
- CORE The world’s largest collection of open access research papers.
- Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) Indexes and provides access to over 45,000 scholarly, peer-reviewed books available under open access licenses.
- Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) An index of diverse open access journals from around the world.
- E-books Directory A daily growing list of links to freely accessible ebooks, documents and lecture notes found all over the internet.
- HathiTrust Digital Library A collaboration of academic and research libraries who preserve millions of digitised public domain and openly licensed works.
- InTechOpen Publishes peer-reviewed books in physical sciences, engineering and technology, life sciences, health sciences, and social sciences and humanities. Funders include the Australian Research Council (ARC).
- Khan Academy Offers practice exercises and instructional videos in a range of subject areas.
- Latest Thinking Offers entry level videos and in-depth videos on a range of topics and disciplines.
- MERLOT Collects OERs contributed and reviewed by the MERLOT member community.
- Milne Open Textbooks A catalogue of full courses and texts authored and peer reviewed by State University of New York (SUNY) faculty.
- MIT OpenCourseWare An openly licensed digital collection of resources which includes online textbooks produced for MIT courses.
- OER Commons A public digital library of OERs provided by universities and other organisations with collections curated by digital librarians.
- Online Library and Publication Platform (OAPEN) Provides a quality-controlled collection of open access books across a wide range of subjects.
- Open Access Theses & Dissertations A resource for finding open access graduate theses and dissertations published around the world.
- OpenBook Publishers A fully open access press that does not charge its authors a fee to publish open access.
- Open Knowledge Repository The World Bank’s official open access repository for its research outputs and knowledge products.
- Open Library - Internet Archive An open source book card catalog run by the Internet Archive.
- Open Library - eCampus Ontario Provides access to more than 1,600 free and openly-licensed educational resources.
- Open Research Library Includes books and journal titles across a range of subjects.
- OpenStax Publishes peer-reviewed openly licensed textbooks. Subjects include science, social sciences, humanities and business.
- Open Textbook Library A collection of peer reviewed textbooks used by multiple higher education institutions or affiliates of university, scholarly society or professional organisations.
- Oxford Academic - open access journals Open access journal articles from Oxford University Press's academic research platform.
- Saylor Academy Open Textbooks Repository of textbooks used for Saylor Academy's courses, which are freely available and open to the public for downloading and sharing.
- ScienceDirect - Open Access Publications Includes open access, peer reviewed articles across a range of subject areas.
- SpringerLink An online collection of journals, eBooks, reference works and protocols across a vast range of subject disciplines.
- Teaching Commons Open Educational Resources from leading colleges and universities.
- University of Adelaide Press Celebrating open access principles, this press operated from 2009-2018.
- UTS ePress The open access publishing arm of the University of Technology Sydney (UTS).
- WikiBooks A multidisciplinary open-content textbook collection.
- WisTech Open A multidisciplinary repository of open resources published using the Pressbooks software.
OERs from the sources below are generally available under a Creative Commons (CC) license, which allows for distribution, remix and adaptation (e.g., CC BY, CC BY-NC-SA). However, you will need to check the license conditions of each resource to determine how it can be used.
Please ensure you also check our multidisciplinary list of resources for more resources relating to your subject area.
Humanities & Social Sciences - Multidisciplinary
- Project GutenbergA large, fully searchable electronic collection of world literature in English and many other languages.
- Project MUSEOffers open access books, journals, and digital humanities works from several distinguished university presses, scholarly societies, and independent not-for-profit academic publishers.
- SocArXivAn open archive of the social sciences, including Arts & Humanities, Education, Law and Social & Behavioral Sciences.
Business
- Academic and Business Research Institute (AABRI) JournalsPeer reviewed, academic journals relating to economics and business.
- Arthur Andersen Case Studies in Business EthicsA collection of 90 case studies, published to raise awareness of ethical issues in business.
- CORE EconFree online textbooks and resources for a new way of teaching and learning economics.
- The Economics NetworkOne of the world's leading economics education sites, providing educational materials, teaching ideas and research.
- Lumen Learning - Boundless MarketingLumen Learning provides a comprehensive marketing textbook called Boundless Marketing.
- Teaching Resources Library - Case StudiesA collection of teaching case studies and simulations developed by MIT Management (Sloan School) and students.
English & Creative Writing
- Australian Literary and Historical TextsA collection of Australian literary and historical texts, originally a part of Australian Digital Collections (ADC).
- Blake Digital Text ProjectThe complete prose and poetry of William Blake and an online Blake Concordance.
- The Complete Works of William ShakespeareThe complete plays and poetry of William Shakespeare compiled by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
- Project Gutenberg AustraliaCollection of over 4000 titles including classic Australian literature.
Politics & International Relations
- E-International RelationsThe publications archive of E-International Relations, the world’s leading international relations website.
OERs from the sources below are generally available under a Creative Commons (CC) license, which allows for distribution, remix and adaptation (e.g., CC BY, CC BY-NC-SA). However, you will need to check the license conditions of each resource to determine how it can be used.
Please ensure you also check our multidisciplinary list of resources for more resources relating to your subject area.
Sciences & Engineering - Multidisciplinary
- National Academies PressPublishes on a wide range of topics in science, engineering, and medicine.
- Public Library of Science (PLOS)A nonprofit, Open Access publisher in science and medicine.
- Taylor & Francis - Open JournalsOpen access journals across health sciences and biological sciences.
- Wiley Open AccessOffers a selection of fully open access journals across biological, chemical and health sciences.
Health Sciences
- Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNetProvides access to publications of the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet, which aims to improve the health of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people by facilitating the sharing and exchange of relevant, high-quality knowledge.
- Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW)Provides access to publications of the AIHW, an independent statutory Australian Government agency working with health and welfare data.
- BioMed CentralBioMed Central provides free access to peer-reviewed biomedical research.
- NOBAA free online platform that provides high-quality, flexibly structured psychology textbooks and educational materials.
- PsyArXivA free preprint service for the psychological sciences.
- PubMed CentralA free full-text archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature.
- World Health Organization (WHO)Provides access to all WHO publications.