Digital library
Textbooks, references and open learning resources.
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Always Developing
Anne Baird · University of Windsor
In the contents: 2.02: Psychosocial Theory · 4.07: Psychosocial Development in Young Adulthood · 5.07: Psychosocial Development in Middle Adulthood
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Exploring Public Speaking 3e
Kris Barton and Barbara G. Tucker · Florida State University and University of Georgia
The text addresses all the material that an introductory public speaking course involves. This includes the value of public speaking, overcoming public speaking anxiety, listening and audience analysis; plagiarism and ethics; invention and thesis development; research; organization; introductions, conclusions, and transitions; supporting material; delivery; visual aids; language choices; informative speaking; persuasive speaking; logic and fallacies; and special occasion speeches.
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Exploring Socio-Cultural Perspectives in Diversity
Deanna Cozart et al. · University of Georgia
The fundamental knowledge of understanding culture and teaching children from diverse backgrounds. Examination of the nature and function of culture, development of individual and group cultural identity, definitions and implications of diversity, and the influences of culture on learning, development, and pedagogy. This course has a required field experience component.
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Introduction to Human Geography: A Disciplinary Approach
Steven M. Graves · California State University, Northridge
Introduction to Human Geography: A Disciplinary Approach is a free eText designed for students enrolled in survey courses in Human/Cultural Geography or US Geography. Geography is a discipline that allows those who use it to ask questions, solve problems and communicate solutions about a wide range of issues. This text introduces readers to geography as discipline as it is used to better understand a variety of topics commonly of interest to geographers.
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Global Femicide: Indigenous Women and Girls Torn from Our Midst
Brenda Anderson, Shauneen Pete, Wendee Kubik, and Mary Rucklos-Hampton · University of Regina
This book underscores the common, interlocking effects of racism and sexism on Indigenous women. Family members, scholars and researchers, artists, activists and policy-makers provide their decade-long perspectives, providing testimony and evidence that sexualized and racialized violence is not only a product of historic colonization but continues to manifest in entrenched systems of colonization and global femicide. The analysis and the heart of all the authors is generously shared.
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SWHS 300: Introduction to Social Work/Human Services (Bradshaw)
LibreTexts
In the contents: 1.01: Introduction to Social Work · 1.03: Video- Legacies of Social Change · 4.3.01: How do social workers know what to do
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College Success
University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing · 2015
Our primary goal in writing College Success is to help you succeed in college. According to Department of Education data, 30 percent of college freshmen leave school in their first year and as many as 50 percent never graduate. College Success is designed to help change that. College Success has a student-friendly format arranged to help you develop the essential skills and provide the information you need to succeed in college. This is not a textbook full of theory and extensive detail that merely discusses student success; rather, this is a how-to manual for succeeding in college. The book provides realistic, practical guidance ranging from study skills to personal health, from test taking to managing time and money. Furthermore, College Success is accessible—information is presented concisely and as simply as possible. College Success has the following features to help you achieve your goals: Each chapter asks you to evaluate yourself because success starts with recognizing your strengths and weaknesses, your hopes and desires, and your own personal, individual realities. You'll develop your own goals based on these self-assessments, determining what success in college really means for you as an individual. Throughout the book, you will find numerous interactive activities created to help you improve your skills. To assist you with this, the material is presented in easily digestible “chunks” of information so you can begin applying it immediately in your own life—and get the most out of your college education.
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A Historical Geography of North America
Charles Travis · Mavs Open Press · 2026
This book offers an accessible and critical look at the historical geography of North America. Placing an emphasis on the continent's various human geographies, the book discusses how they developed and interacted across North America’s various physiographic regions. Highlighting spatial entanglements of culture, ethnicity, and religion, the book addresses the development of technology within the context of the historical extraction and consumption of the continent’s natural resources. Engaging a time span that reaches back to the Pre-Columbian Era, and up to the early decades of the twenty-first century, the book provides a broad survey of North America's historical geography.
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Manualized CBT for Treating Anxiety
Michael Campbell; Ashley Toland; Elizabeth Ruegg · University of West Florida Pressbooks · 2026
In this book you will learn about the application of manualized Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) in treating Generalized Anxiety Disorders. A chapter is devoted to cover the theoretical framework for CBT and the evidence that supports its efficacy in treatment. Lastly, this text utilizes a case based approach to gain knowledge and skills in this treatment approach. The text illustrations, aimed to help the reader create an emotional linkage to the topics, characters and treatment approach, were created by Jonathan Hoffmann using a Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform.
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Public User Services & Technology: a Primer for Librarians
Micah Bateman; Sera-Ann Hargrove · University of Iowa Libraries · 2026
Public User Services & Technology: A Primer for Librarians is an open-access introduction to the tools, concepts, and practices that shape technology-centered public services in libraries. Developed through an OpenHawks grant at the University of Iowa Libraries, the book features student-authored chapters edited by faculty and graduate staff, each aligned to a core topic in public user services. Designed for MLIS students, beginning librarians, and library workers, chapters may be read independently or used as modular instructional and training resources.
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Speak Out, Call In: Public Speaking as Advocacy
Meggie Mapes · University of Kansas Libraries · 2024
Speak Out, Call In: Public Speaking as Advocacy (second edition) is a contemporary, interdisciplinary public speaking textbook that fuses rhetoric, critical/cultural studies, and performance to offer an up-to-date resource for students. With a focus on advocacy, this textbook invites students to consider public speaking as a political, purposeful form of information-sharing.
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Memory & Cognition
Priyanka Mehta · University of Wisconsin System · 2026
Memory & Cognition offers a fresh, engaging tour of how the mind works—spanning the brain, mental imagery, the different functions of memory, and decision‑making. Blending psychology with neuroscience, computer science, sociology, and philosophy, the book grounds concepts in real‑life examples and uses experimental evidence, diagrams, and hypothetical scenarios to introduce complex topics to readers. Memory & Cognition is a concise, interdisciplinary guide for anyone curious about how we think, remember, and make decisions.
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Introduction to Psychology
Jorden Cummings; Lee Sanders · University of Saskatchewan · 2019
This introductory text has been created from a combination of original content and materials compiled and adapted from a number of open text publications.
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Introduction to Adulthood and Aging
Maham Khan · Virginia Tech Libraries · 2026
Introduction to Adulthood and Aging (2026) is a research-based, 358-page Open Educational Resource (OER) adapted with original material added for use in Virginia Tech’s Human Development course, HD 2004: Adulthood and Aging. This text aims to spark reader ideas to address the significant global challenges and opportunities related to aging worldwide, exploring development, loss, resilience, and change and challenging common assumptions about aging. More than just a textbook, this resource is intended to spark reflection, empathy, and connection. The text is a foundation of knowledge and compassion that can be applied in both academic and personal settings, assisting readers to engage with the topic in practical and meaningful ways. Developed in response to the increasing cost of textbooks, with the goal of reducing the financial burden on students and families, Introduction to Adulthood and Aging adapts and expands the openly-licensed works of other authors. It was adapted with original content added from existing openly-licensed texts, developed as a course reader in Canvas, and has been converted into MSWord and PDF. It is shared broadly in an effort to increase access to the content. While it is freely available under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike (CC BY NC-SA) 4.0 license, the value of the content remains high, grounded in research, empathy, and a commitment to accessible education. Instructors reviewing or adopting this book for a course, please help us understand your use by filling out this form: https://bit.ly/interest_introductiontoadulthoodandaging
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Race, Crime and Injustice
Shanell Sanchez, PhD; Jessica Peterson, PhD · Open Oregon Educational Resources · 2025
Welcome to the Race, Crime, and Justice Open Educational Resource! This book was developed with a diversity, equity, and inclusion framework. This course is about race, so our primary focus will be on the experiences of people of color (POC) in the criminal justice system. An important aspect of this book is the various spotlight examples we weave throughout the chapters to demonstrate the application of materials. We hope to increase awareness of the experiences of people of color, both historically and in modern day, and the criminal justice system. Throughout history, people of color have had routinely negative experiences with the criminal justice system at every level. A person’s race and ethnicity can determine how one interacts with and experiences the criminal justice system. People of color have faced various barriers and challenges when attempting to make meaningful changes to a system that has operated in a repressive manner since it began.
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Resisting Gender Violence
Susan Shaw; Xosé Santos; Jayamala Mayilsamy; Kamalaveni Veni · Oregon State University · 2026
Gender violence occurs within every country and cultural context, affecting women, girls, and LGBTQIA+ people of all racial, ethnic, religious, socioeconomic, ability, and age groups. Gender violence is one of the most pervasive human rights violations in the world. With contributing authors from across Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas, Resisting Gender Violence represents a truly global perspective.
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The Craft of Sociological Research
Victor Chen; Gabriela León-Pérez; Julie Honnold; Volkan Aytar · Virginia's Academic Library Consortium (VIVA) · 2024
The Craft of Sociological Research: Principles and Methods of Collecting, Analyzing, and Presenting Social Science Data was developed with the goal of developing an open educational resource (OER) that makes well-written and engaging methods-training materials available for free to students. The manuscript was written by a team of authors at Virginia Commonwealth University who are all researchers as well as teachers of undergraduate methods courses. Some portions of the text were adapted from existing OER social scientific methods textbooks, and others are original. Our aim is to provide broad but sound coverage of widely used methodologies, giving students the background they need to both evaluate and conduct research. While targeted at undergraduates, the textbook includes optional sections that provide more advanced methodological training. It also features Q&As with prominent sociologists and sidebars on topical issues that social scientific research has helped illuminate. We hope the text is accessible to students with a variety of backgrounds and interests, and to that end we have tried to make the writing lively and clear throughout and provide supplemental online and multimedia resources when possible. This project was funded with the generous support of the Virtual Library of Virginia (VIVA), a program of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV), and VCU Libraries’ Open and Affordable Course Content Initiative.
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Understanding Human Development: Prenatal Through Adolescence
Terese Jones; Christina Belli; Esmeralda Julyan · Open Oregon Educational Resources · 2025
Understanding Human Development is an introductory textbook for individuals entering early childhood education and related fields. The textbook provides an overview of the developmental lifespan from conception to adolescence using social justice and ecological perspectives. The textbook aims to represent equitable approaches to understanding human development and discusses the diverse factors and interactions that support or hinder development.
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Sociology in Everyday Life: An Equity Lens
Jennifer Puentes; Matthew Gougherty · Open Oregon Educational Resources · 2025
This openly licensed text uses a multi-level, intersectional feminist approach to frame our understanding of contemporary sociology in the United States. The text introduces a variety of concepts and theories that are helpful in understanding the social world in which we live. It asks and answers the questions “What is sociology?” “How do groups, networks, and social interactions shape our reality?” and “How do identities and social structures shape our opportunities?” Original content is licensed under CC BY 4.0, except as otherwise noted.
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Changing Society
Aimee Krouskop; Ben Cushing; Kimberly Puttman; Avery Temple · Open Oregon Educational Resources · 2025
Changing Society offers a foundational exploration of the causes, impacts, and dynamics of social change. Informed by the tenets of universal design, equity and belonging, and a commitment to a decolonizing approach, it is written for undergraduate students majoring in social sciences, social work, ethnic studies, or social justice studies.