Digital library
Textbooks, references and open learning resources.
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Thinking Rhetorically: Writing for Professional and Public Audiences
Roger Williams University Department of Writing Studies, Rhetoric, and Composition · Roger Williams University Open Publishing · 2020
Thinking Rhetorically: Writing in Professional and Public Contexts is dedicated to introducing students to a lifelong commitment of engaging with these problems that matter. As an academic discipline, Writing Studies’ contribution to engaging with problems can be applied to all areas of study and to all types of problems because we focus on the way language itself—discourse—is created and exchanged in the service of engaging problems. Writing Studies deepens students’ rhetorical awareness of how the ongoing conversations between groups of people shape and express the problems that matter.
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World History Since 1500: An Open and Free Textbook
John Rankin; Constanze Weise · East Tennessee State University · 2023
World History Since 1500: An Open and Free Textbook is designed to cover world history from 1500 to the present in 15 chapters. The OER-supported textbook can be downloaded as a pdf or viewed online. The textbook serves to weave insights from many perspectives into stories and narratives that will help students develop a framework to organize and connect ideas, geographical locations, and timelines allowing them to think critically and broadly about the world around them. In addition to helping students master the sequence and scope of world history from 1500, the textbook helps develop empathy for people who live and lived in different parts of the world and during different historical times leading to the creation of empathic and knowledgeable global citizens who are aware of and concerned about the world around them.
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Web Writing
Amber Pfannenstiel · The Pennsylvania Alliance for Design of Open Textbooks (PA-ADOPT) · 2023
Web Writing (2023) by Dr. A Nicole Pfannenstiel is designed to provide a practical, rhetorical approach to web writing and content strategy analysis for students completing advanced writing courses. The eTextbook uses the rhetorical situation and key concepts to help readers/students understand how to write within specific web spaces for specific audiences drawing on appropriate discourse community conventions. It includes a chapter devoted to the rhetorical situation and key concepts to help students analyze and build their understanding of existing communication. It also includes a chapter outlining approaches to content strategy analysis, using the rhetorical situation and key concepts to understand the rich public data provided through social media accounts to support learners understanding effective web writing. The content analysis overview helps students build skills for analyzing writing, for collecting and analyzing qualitative and quantitative social media data, and for drawing conclusions about content strategy best practices.
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Theory Fundamentals Workbook
Gregory Young · Montana State University · 2023
This workbook is a practical method for learning the rudiments of music, which are essential to a thorough understanding of music in general. Designed as a supplement to professional instruction rather than a manual for self instruction, the text is intentionally brief. The emphasis is on using practical exercises to develop fluency. Aural, vocal, and keyboard skills must be integrated into the study of music theory from the very beginning. I encourage all students, regardless of their principal instrument, to learn to hear, sing, and play on the piano everything that they do in theory. All exercises in this book should be completed thoroughly. Usually a sample will be completed in brackets for each exercise, as a demonstration. Fluency with these basic materials of music will be a great asset to any further musical endeavors. For students who need additional exercises, suggestions for further study will be given.
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Foundations of Aural Skills
Timothy Chenette · Utah Education Network Digital Press with Pressbooks · 2022
Foundations of Aural Skills is a research-based, accessible, relevant, creative, inclusive, empowering textbook for teaching introductory aural skills. The first seven chapters provide thorough instruction in aural fundamentals, allowing students to build their foundations from a variety of starting points. The following chapters address the traditional tasks of sight-reading and dictation, but also improvisation, mimicking music you hear (“playback”), transcription, and ensemble skills. The final two chapters add some basic form- and chord-listening skills. Every section includes creative activities that learners can try out on their own or do in class. Embedded playlists for practicing listening skills include a diverse range of music that will connect with students’ preferences and allow them to experience music they haven’t worked with before. While the text is primarily designed for a first semester or year of instruction, it also includes some instruction on modulation, chromaticism, and mixed meter, and future additions/development will make these advanced applications more robust.
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The Tragedy of the Self
Andrea Sangiacomo · University of Groningen Open Textbooks · 2023
Why do human beings interpret their overall experience in terms of selfhood? How was the notion and sense of self shaped at different times and in different cultures? What sort of problems or paradoxes did these constructions face? These lectures address these and related questions by sketching a roadmap of possible theoretical avenues for conceiving of the self, bringing to the foreground its soteriological implications, while also testing this theoretical outlook against insights offered by various disciplines. Exploring the cross-cultural spectrum of possible ways of conceiving of the self invites the more existential question of whether any of these possibilities might offer resources for dealing with the tragedies of today’s world, or maybe even saving it from some of them.
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Pay for Play: How the Music Industry Works, Where the Money Goes, and Why
Larry Wayte · University of Oregon Libraries · 2023
The history of music is closely linked to the history of copyright law. This book explores how the law shaped music and the music industry. From church and court patronage in pre-19th Century Europe, to the effects of social media on music, this book explores the abiding influence of the law on music.
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A History of the Middle East
Robert Flynn · Portland Community College · 2026
A History of the Middle East 2.0 is an Open Educational Resource textbook on the history of the Middle East from the time of Muhammad to the end of the Arab Spring in 2017. It is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike International 4.0 license and is licensed by Portland Community College. It is available as a single volume PDF. I am happy to provide the Microsoft Word source files on request.
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Reading and Writing Successfully in College: A Guide for Students [Revised Edition]
Patricia Lynne · ROTEL · 2023
This textbook provides students with guidelines for understanding writing tasks as intellectual work using Bloom’s Taxonomy and for treating the writing process as a set of variable activities that move along a trajectory from idea or assignment to a finished product. The book also includes chapters on strengthening reading strategies and on finding, evaluating, and using sources effectively.
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World History
Ann Kordas; Ryan Lynch; Brooke Nelson · OpenStax
World History, Volume 1: to 1500 is designed to meet the scope and sequence of a world history course to 1500 offered at both two-year and four-year institutions. Suitable for both majors and non majors World History, Volume 1: to 1500 introduces students to a global perspective of history couched in an engaging narrative. Concepts and assessments help students think critically about the issues they encounter so they can broaden their perspective of global history. A special effort has been made to introduce and juxtapose people’s experiences of history for a rich and nuanced discussion. Primary source material represents the cultures being discussed from a firsthand perspective whenever possible. World History, Volume 1: to 1500 also includes the work of diverse and underrepresented scholars to ensure a full range of perspectives.
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Introduction to College Research
Walter Butler; Aloha Sargent; Kelsey Smith · Academic Senate for California Community Colleges · 2021
This book acknowledges our changing information landscape, covering key concepts in information literacy to support a research process with intention. We start by critically examining the online environment many of us already engage with every day, looking at algorithms, the attention economy, information disorder and cynicism, information hygiene, and fact-checking. We then move into an exploration of information source types, meaningful research topics, keyword choices, effective search strategies, library resources, Web search considerations, the ethical use of information, and citation.
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Public Speaking as Performance Subtitle: Practicing Public Speaking in the Theatre & Performance Classroom
Mechele Leon · University of Kansas Libraries
Public Speaking as Performance: Practicing Public Speaking in the Theatre & Performance Classroom is an innovative public speaking textbook written by theatre educators. It combines the essential elements of speechwriting with the tried and true skills that actors learn to communicate a story to an audience. In chapters such as “Actor Tools for Public Speakers” and “From Page to Stage,” the textbook provides students with a creative and accessible approach to delivering speeches. Drawing on the tradition of teaching public speaking in theatre and drama departments—a practice that is still maintained in some institutions—this textbook emphasizes the performative nature of communication. Educators teaching public speaking in theatre and performance departments will find this a textbook particularly suited to the interests of their students.
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Trayectos 2: Más sobre mí
Gabriela Zapata · Center for Open Educational Resources and Language Learning (COERLL) · 2022
Trayectos is an open curriculum for beginning second language (L2) learners of Spanish. The textbook offers the following features to L2 Spanish students and instructors: Learner-centered fresh, multimodal content, based on Learning by Design, a pedagogy inspired by the Multiliteracies movement (Kalantzis et al., 2005, 2016, 2019; Zapata, 2022). The four modules in Volume I connect the life worlds of learners with the life worlds of diverse Spanish speakers. Instruction incorporating the following features: Multimodal texts (e.g., readings, videos, posters) based on a variety of textual genres that contextualize topics about the lives of real university students; Communicative activities that bind language form to cultural meaning within real-life contexts, and offer students opportunities to discover how to use new Spanish vocabulary and grammar in diverse sociocultural situations; Critical thinking and language awareness tasks that showcase different varieties of Spanish, including those spoken in the United States, and help learners explore the Spanish-speaking world, including local Hispanic/Latinx communities; and Culminating tasks that oblige learners to synthesize their new linguistic and cultural knowledge into a personal, multimodal text. Supplementary digital resources that provide students with opportunities to practice the content learned through self-correcting activities (Práctica individual) and to use Spanish to broaden their knowledge of and critically analyze issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the Spanish-speaking world (Voces de nuestro mundo; available at http://bit.ly/VocesMundo). An open copyright license (Creative Commons license) that gives all users the right to adapt the textbook and to share their new content with others, and digital how-to sections for instructors to answer their students’ unique needs.
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Trayectos 1: Mi vida en la universidad
Gabriela Zapata · Center for Open Educational Resources and Language Learning (COERLL) · 2021
Trayectos is an open curriculum for beginning second language (L2) learners of Spanish. The textbook offers the following features to L2 Spanish students and instructors: Learner-centered fresh, multimodal content, based on Learning by Design, a pedagogy inspired by the Multiliteracies movement (Kalantzis et al., 2005, 2016, 2019; Zapata, 2022). The four modules in Volume I connect the life worlds of learners with the life worlds of diverse Spanish speakers. Instruction incorporating the following features: Multimodal texts (e.g., readings, videos, posters) based on a variety of textual genres that contextualize topics about the lives of real university students; Communicative activities that bind language form to cultural meaning within real-life contexts, and offer students opportunities to discover how to use new Spanish vocabulary and grammar in diverse sociocultural situations; Critical thinking and language awareness tasks that showcase different varieties of Spanish, including those spoken in the United States, and help learners explore the Spanish-speaking world, including local Hispanic/Latinx communities; and Culminating tasks that oblige learners to synthesize their new linguistic and cultural knowledge into a personal, multimodal text. Supplementary digital resources that provide students with opportunities to practice the content learned through self-correcting activities (Práctica individual) and to use Spanish to broaden their knowledge of and critically analyze issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the Spanish-speaking world (Voces de nuestro mundo; available at http://bit.ly/VocesMundo). An open copyright license (Creative Commons license) that gives all users the right to adapt the textbook and to share their new content with others, and digital how-to sections for instructors to answer their students’ unique needs.
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Supporting English Language Learners in First-Year College Composition
Breana Bayraktar; Elaine George; Nataliya Schetchikova · Virginia's Academic Library Consortium (VIVA) · 2023
Supporting ELLs in FYC is organized around five key essays, selected to coordinate with the essay styles commonly taught in first-year/first-semester composition courses. This organization is planned to offer instructors the flexibility to best support the pacing of the composition course. There are 2 expository, 1 narrative, and 2 argument essays. Each module includes one essay, with accompanying activities and supporting materials. Expository: Sweet, Sour & Resentful Expository: Why Rituals Are Good Narrative: Prison to Professor Argument: Fake News Argument: Misinformation
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Processes: Writing Across Academic Careers
Christopher Iverson; Dan Ehrenfeld · Milne Open Textbooks · 2023
Processes: Writing Across Academic Careers is an edited collection featuring writing from students, faculty, and staff at Farmingdale State College, a State University of New York (SUNY) campus on Long Island. Each contributor reflects on their own writing as well as writing in their fields/disciplines. Namely, they reflect on their writing processes, hence the name of the book. The FSC Writing in the Disciplines committee curated excerpts of published or unpublished work from faculty, students, and administrators across departments and offices. The result is Processes: Writing Across Academic Careers, a collection of writing samples and reflections on the processes that made those pieces of writing possible. This book shows that, while writing looks and functions differently in different disciplines, college communities center on writing. From the college president to the faculty to the students, each member of the community grapples with writing, even in disciplines not considered to be writing-intensive. The text features compositions from nursing, STEM and health sciences, education, and history and culture. The examples span from reflections on the role of writing in one’s academic career, examples of professional writing in the sciences, research papers, conference proposals, to laboratory reports. The examples of published or works-in-progress are accompanied by thoughtful reflections on how the author crafted their work. The collection presents an opportunity for scholars to acknowledge the centrality of writing in their everyday work. Students learning how to write in college and about writing conventions in their specific disciplines will gain an overview of writing they will encounter in their academic career and an appreciation for the multitudes of ways writers work. Perfect for introductory writing courses, and useful modularly for any class that touches on writing or information literacy, this text is a unique, honest, and practical resource for any u
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Conversaciones Corrientes: Temas de Cultura y Sociedad
Laurie Massery; María Bordera; Pedro Larrea-Rubio · Laurie Massery
This book is designed to facilitate conversation in Spanish among intermediate and post-intermediate learners of Spanish. The following online textbook allows students to read about, review and discuss interesting, entertaining and relevant topics that will undoubtedly elicit conversation and friendly debate among classmates. Topics including spirituality, family design, life choices, social norms and even history and its impact on Generation Z, are discussed.
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Symbiotic Posthumanist Ecologies in Western Literature, Philosophy and Art: Towards Theory and Practice
Peggy Karpouzou; Nikoleta Zampaki · Peter Lang · 2023
Through the burgeoning fields of Posthumanities and Environmental Humanities, this edition examines the changing conception of human subjectivity, agency, and citizenship as shaped by the dynamic interplays between nature, technology, science, and culture. The proposed ‘symbiotic turn’, (the awareness of the multitude of interactions and mutual interdependencies among humans, non-humans and their environment) aspires to explore the complex recompositions of the “human” in the 21st century. By organizing and promoting interdisciplinary dialogue at multiple levels, both in theory and practice, Symbiotic Posthumanist Ecologies is suggested as a new narrative about the biosphere and technosphere, which is embodied literarily, philosophically, and artistically.
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The European Experience: A Multi-Perspective History of Modern Europe, 1500–2000
Jan Hansen; Jochen Hung; Jaroslav Ira · Open Book Publishers
The European Experience brings together the expertise of nearly a hundred historians from eight European universities to internationalise and diversify the study of modern European history, exploring a grand sweep of time from 1500 to 2000. Offering a valuable corrective to the Anglocentric narratives of previous English-language textbooks, scholars from all over Europe have pooled their knowledge on comparative themes such as identities, cultural encounters, power and citizenship, and economic development to reflect the complexity and heterogeneous nature of the European experience. Rather than another grand narrative, the international author teams offer a multifaceted and rich perspective on the history of the continent of the past 500 years. Each major theme is dissected through three chronological sub-chapters, revealing how major social, political and historical trends manifested themselves in different European settings during the early modern (1500–1800), modern (1800–1900) and contemporary period (1900–2000). This resource is of utmost relevance to today’s history students in the light of ongoing internationalisation strategies for higher education curricula, as it delivers one of the first multi-perspective and truly ‘European’ analyses of the continent’s past. Beyond the provision of historical content, this textbook equips students with the intellectual tools to interrogate prevailing accounts of European history, and enables them to seek out additional perspectives in a bid to further enrich the discipline
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It’s About Them: Public Speaking in the 21st Century
Sara Kim; Douglas Marshall; June Pulliam · LOUIS: The Louisiana Library Network
In addition to original material this book is an adaptation of Introduction to Speech Communication authored by Sarah E. Hollingsworth, Kathryn Weinland, Sasha Hanrahan, and Mary Walker with a CC BY-NC-SA license. Introduction to Speech Communication includes original work as well as adapted and remixed material from Exploring Public Speaking: 4th Edition licensed CC BY-NC-SA, Stand Up, Speak Out licensed CC BY-NC-SA, and Fundamentals of Public Speaking licensed CC BY. It’s About Them: Public Speaking in the 21st Century also adapted a chapter from Speak Out, Call In: Public Speaking as Advocacy authored by Meggie Mapes that is licensed CC BY-NC-SA. The information on “What is an Open Textbook?” is adapted from Introduction to Philosophy: Epistemology by Christina Hendricks with a CC-BY license. See the Adaptations section for specific changes. This textbook was created as part of the Interactive OER for Dual Enrollment project, facilitated by LOUIS: The Louisiana Library Network and funded by a $2 million Open Textbooks Pilot Program grant from the Department of Education. This project supports the extension of access to high-quality post-secondary opportunities to high school students across Louisiana and beyond. This project features a collaboration between educational systems in Louisiana, the library community, Pressbooks technology partner, and workforce representatives. It will enable and enhance the delivery of open educational resources (OER) and interactive quiz and assessment elements for priority dual enrollment courses in Louisiana and nationally. Developed OER course materials will be released under a license that permits their free use, reuse, modification and sharing with others.The target audience for this project and this textbook are dual enrollment students. Dual enrollment is the opportunity for a student to be enrolled in high school and college at the same time. A dual enrollment student receives credit on both their high school and college tr