Digital library
Textbooks, references and open learning resources.
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Social Work Practice and Disability Communities: An Intersectional Anti-Oppressive Approach
Elspeth Slayter; Lisa Johnson · ROTEL · 2023
Designed as a main textbook for social work courses at the bachelor’s and master’s level or for social work practitioners in the field, this work moves beyond a traditional medicalized and segregated approach (i.e., chapters organized around impairments) to the exploration of disability-specific populations, instead taking a more intersectional approach in discussing specific service areas and practice issues while weaving in stories about the lived experiences of disabled people with a range of social identities. These issues include parenting, mass incarceration, ableism, aging, and employment, among many others. A key goal of this book is to introduce an intersectionality-informed and critically culturally competent approach to anti-oppressive social work practice with disabled people, primarily in the United States. To do this, we present an innovative practice model for social workers to use in their work with disabled people and communities, which is incorporated throughout the book in a variety of practice considerations. The main themes woven throughout our practice model are intersectionality theory, critical cultural competence, and anti-oppressive practice.
![Shared Voices: An Introduction to Cultural Anthropology [Revised Edition]](/api/files/covers/otl-1619.webp)
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Shared Voices: An Introduction to Cultural Anthropology [Revised Edition]
Demetrios Brellas; Vanessa Martinez · ROTEL · 2024
Shared Voices is a student-centered cultural anthropology mini textbook built with an equity lens. We are excited to share this with you all. This book attempts to address the lack of current, reliable, and relevant resources for introductory anthropology courses that center equity and anti-racism. We set out to create a culturally responsive and inclusive textbook with an anti-racist and global citizenry perspective. We center marginalized voices, stories, and community. This text is a starting point for any introductory anthropology course recognizing that cultural change is constant and the familiar is cousin to the weird and unusual. A work in progress, this text aims to provide students an opportunity to build content as they explore the topics within.
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Psychology of Language
Dinesh Ramoo; Marie Bartlett · BCcampus · 2021
In this textbook, students are introduced to the fundamental principles of linguistics and psycholinguistics. Students will explore theories and models of language development, comprehension and production as well as bilingualism and reading. All of these topics are approached from a Canadian perspective and include ideas from indigenous cultures and languages of Canada.
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Natural Resources Sustainability: An introductory synthesis
Christopher Lant · Utah Education Network Digital Press with Pressbooks · 2023
This text has evolved from 20 semesters teaching the undergraduate courses Geography, People, and the Environment and Environment and Society. It is designed for freshmen through junior-level courses at community, junior and four-year colleges and universities in the United States. Focused upon the dilemma of environmental sustainability, geography and the emergent field of ecological economics are emphasized in a trans-disciplinary framework. It provides—in a one semester or one quarter undergraduate course that requires no prerequisites—a fundamental background in the essentials students need to deal with natural resource and environmental issues as an informed citizen while building a foundation for further study.
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Peer Review: A Critical Primer and Practical Course
Emily Ford · Portland State University Library · 2022
This book is a self-paced, open access training in peer review. In eight modules it asks readers to engage in a variety of activities to learn the who, what, why, and how of peer review. It is geared to library professionals, library school students, or other academic professionals who must understand and/or engage with the peer-review process.
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Power, Profit, and Privilege: Problematizing Scholarly Publishing
Amanda Makula · University of Kansas Libraries · 2022
This open course introduces students to the scholarly communications system — with particular emphasis on the scholarly journal publishing mechanism — wherein new information is created, evaluated, disseminated, and preserved.
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International Libraries: An Open Textbook
Amanda Reed; Sarah Johnson; Heather Severson; Michael Green · The University at Buffalo · 2019
International Libraries: An Open Textbook is a reference sourcebook about the libraries and the field of librarianship in non-North American countries around the world. Each chapter in this volume includes a profile of a featured country’s variety of libraries, its library histories, its systems of library education, and its library practices, laws, and professional associations. Graduate students in the University at Buffalo’s Department of Information Science authored these chapters for the LIS 503: International Librarianship course during the summer term of 2019. The text was developed under the a Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) as an open educational resource that can be adapted for future sections of the International Librarianship course or for similar courses offered in library and information programs at other institutions.
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Library 160: Introduction to College-Level Research
Iowa State University Library Instruction Services · Iowa State University · 2021
You will learn how scholarly information is produced, organized, and accessed; how to construct and use effective search strategies in a variety of web tools and scholarly databases; how to choose finding tools appropriate to the type of information you need; critical thinking skills in the evaluation of resources; and best practices in the ethical use of information.
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Psychology of Human Relations
Stevy Scarbrough · Open Oregon Educational Resources · 2023
Understanding human relations is a valuable skill for anyone entering into the job market. The aim of this textbook is to aid readers in understanding their own behaviors and the behaviors of others with the intent of engaging in positive interactions in personal and professional spaces.
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Lost Without It: How GPS is more than just navigation
Chris McAlister; Deborah King; Samara Hoffmann · University of Southern Queensland · 2023
The navigation that we get from GPS is just a tiny component of how it impacts our lives - from banking to mapping to just knowing where stuff is, it's now a critical part of how humanity functions. This book takes you through all the basics of how GPS works, kind of like a how-to, just in case zombies take out all those smart scientists that keep it all running!
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ReCentering Psych Stats
Lynette Bikos · Seattle Pacific University Library · 2023
To center a variable in regression means to set its value at zero and interpret all other values in relation to this reference point. Regarding race and gender, researchers often center male and White at zero. Further, it is typical that research vignettes in statistics textbooks are similarly seated in a White, Western (frequently U.S.), heteronormative, framework. ReCentering Psych Stats seeks provide statistics training for psychology students (undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral) in a socially and culturally responsive way. All lessons use the open-source statistics program, R (and its associated packages). Each lesson includes a chapter and screencasted lesson, features a workflow for statistical decision-making, and includes all R code necessary to conduct the statistic. Research vignettes are drawn from the published psychology literature. When possible, these articles are authored by individuals who hold identities that have, been marginalized in the scientific literature; correctly use the statistic that is being taught in the lesson; and focus on issues of justice, equity, inclusion, or and diversity. When possible, lessons include interviews with researchers from the featured vignettes. Each chapter includes suggestions for practice that are graded in complexity, such that learners can choose the degree of challenge. ReCentering Psych Stats is perpetually-in-progress; suggestions for corrections or chapters are welcomed: ReCenteringPsychStats@spu.edu
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Romance Lands and Conservation in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem
Jerry Johnson · Montana State University · 2023
To fully grasp the significance of this story we explore the history of the West, the development of Yellowstone National Park, something about the discipline of conservation biology and related policy sciences, Grizzly bear recovery, and eventually the contemporary economy and social setting of the region. The Greater Yellowstone is a model of how to build a regional system of international importance and local well-being.
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Introduction to Women’s & Gender Studies
Colleen Clemens · The Pennsylvania Alliance for Design of Open Textbooks (PA-ADOPT) · 2023
Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies (2023) is an eTextbook designed to provide an introduction to the fields of Women’s Studies and Gender Studies for students taking introductory courses. The textbook touches on a variety of subjects including gender theories, feminisms, intersectionality, equity, and activism. Chapters contain questions to consider and list of suggested readings by theorists and activists. This multimedia eTextbook incorporates videos and podcasts to create a rich introductory experience for students.
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Fundamentals of Psychological Disorders
Alexis Bridley; Lee Daffin Jr. · Washington State University · 2022
Fundamentals of Psychological Disorders (formerly Abnormal Psychology) is an Open Education Resource written by Alexis Bridley, Ph.D. and Lee W. Daffin Jr., Ph.D. through Washington State University. The book tackles the difficult topic of mental disorders in 15 modules and is updated through the DSM-5-TR. This journey starts by discussing what abnormal behavior is by attempting to understand what normal behavior is. Models of abnormal psychology and clinical assessment, diagnosis, and treatment are then discussed. With these three modules completed, the authors next explore several classes of mental disorders in 5 blocks. Block 1 covers mood, trauma and stressor related, and dissociative disorders. Block 2 covers anxiety, somatic symptom, and obsessive-compulsive disorders. Block 3 covers eating and substance-related and addictive disorders. Block 4 tackles schizophrenia spectrum and personality disorders. Finally, Block 5 investigates neurocognitive disorders and then ends with a discussion of contemporary issues in psychopathology. Disorders are covered by discussing their clinical presentation and DSM Criteria, epidemiology, comorbidity, etiology, and treatment options.
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Introduction to Comparative Government and Politics
Dino Bozonelos; Julia Wendt; Charlotte Lee · Academic Senate for California Community Colleges · 2022
Introduction to Comparative Government and Politics, 1st edition, is an Open Education Resource Textbook that surveys contemporary comparative politics. The textbook is organized thematically and includes chapters that cover a wide range of topics in comparative politics: how and what comparativists study; methods in comparative politics; states and regimes; democracies and democratization; non-democracies and democratic backsliding, political identity, including culture, race and ethnicity, gender, nationalism, religion, and class; political economy; collective action and social movements; comparative public opinion; political violence; and globalization and fragmentation. Each chapter accompanied by a case study or a comparative study, one of the main methodological tools used in comparative politics. By contextualizing the concepts, we hope to help students learn the comparative method, which to this day remains one of the most important methodological tools for all researchers.
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Human Geography
Christine Rosenfeld; Nathan Burtch · Virginia's Academic Library Consortium (VIVA) · 2023
Welcome to Human Geography! If you are interested in how humans interact with the environment and how human systems are geographically distributed over space, then you’ve found your place. We hope that find this textbook useful and enjoyable; please dive in by clicking “Contents” to immerse yourself in all-things-human geography.
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Conflict, War and Revolution: the problem of politics in international political thought
Paul Kelly · LSE Press · 2022
Violence and war were ubiquitous features of politics long before the emergence of the modern state system. Since the late 18th century major revolutions across the world have further challenged the idea of the state as a final arbiter of international order. This book discusses ten major thinkers who have questioned and re-shaped how we think about politics, violence and relations between states – Thucydides, Augustine, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Clausewitz, Lenin and Mao, and Schmitt. Conflict, war and revolution have generally been seen in political thought as problems to be managed by stable domestic political communities. In different ways, all the paradigmatic thinkers here acknowledge them instead as inevitable dimensions of human experience, manifested through different ways of acting politically – while yet offering radically distinct answers about how they can be handled. This book dramatically broadens the canon of political thought by considering perspectives on the international system that challenge its historical inevitability and triumph. Drawing on history, theology, and law as well as philosophy, Paul Kelly introduces thinkers who challenge fundamentally the ways in which we should think about the nature and scope of political institutions and agents. He illuminates many troubling contemporary conflicts with a critical and historical perspective. This book is primarily intended for second year and upwards undergraduate students in general political theory and international theory, and advanced international relations students. Each chapter is also downloadable on its own for use in courses considering only some of the ten theorists covered. Written in an accessible way Conflict, War and Revolution will also interest advanced general readers with interests in the historical thought underpinnings of political ideas and today’s international politics.
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Cases on Social Issues: For Class Discussion
Deirdre Maultsaid; Brianna Doyle; Celine Wai Shan Li; Gregory John · Kwantlen Polytechnic University · 2023
This Open Education resource, “Cases on Social Issues: For Class Discussion – 2nd Edition”, includes valuable cases for student use on issues of discrimination, diversity, equity, inclusion and general social issues in the workplace. Included are cases for discussion on workplace scenarios as follows: homophobia; working with Indigenous communities; oil and gas pipelines and the family ranch; invisible disabilities; employee anxiety; safety for women, transgender women and non-binary people; and the bullying of new immigrants and refugees. The critical events portrayed in the cases are realistic and emotional, and most feature the experiences of under-represented and marginalized people. These thoughtful, contemporary cases pose ethical dilemmas about social issues that encourage post-secondary students and instructors to have stimulating, inclusive, and compassionate discussions. Inspired by input from post-secondary students and authored by students and people who are usually under-represented in education material, this resource is designed for upper-level undergraduate or graduate students in the humanities, social sciences, business, healthcare, science, agriculture, environmental studies, Indigenous studies, land use studies, law and more. Each case is supplemented with modifiable discussion prompts, notes for teaching strategies, and a short reading list.
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Common Client Issues in Counselling: An Australian Perspective
Nathan Beel; Christine Chinchen; Tanya Machin; Carol du Plessis · University of Southern Queensland · 2023
Common Client Issues in Counselling: An Australian Perspective focuses on common mental health issues, such as grief and loss, anxiety, and depression, experienced by clients presenting for counselling. The focus throughout is on providing an Australian perspective, highlighting contemporary understandings, as well as suggesting practical and integrative responses to each common issue. All of the authors, reviewers, and editors work within Australian counselling settings, including private practice, not for profit organisations and academic contexts. By drawing on the authors’ extensive experience, and using a contextual rather than diagnostic approach, each chapter is brought to life with valuable insights and suggestions.
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Fundamentals of Human Geography
Wing Cheung · Wing Cheung · 2023
Fundamentals of Human Geography is a college-level digital textbook aimed at introducing undergraduate students to the field of human and cultural geography. This digital textbook was initially conceived as an interactive supplemental guide for an open-source textbook on Human Geography (Introduction to Human Geography ). However, as more materials were added to this digital textbook, it slowly evolved into a standalone textbook on Human Geography which can be used by itself or as a supplemental guide. Be sure to explore all of the interactive content in each chapter and read the captions carefully, as a number of critical concepts are introduced in the interactive content. Be sure to also review the FAQ section for answers to commonly asked questions about technical aspects of this textbook.