Open Educational Resources (OERs)

Wolfgram Library is committed to reducing the cost of required texts for Widener students.  Library faculty are working with subject faculty to identify options such as library eBooks, reserve books, and OERs that will save our students money and support their academic success.   

Faculty are encouraged to fill out this Course Review Form and submit it to your Library Faculty Liaison for review.  Please submit a separate form for each course.  Please note that the availability of texts in specific formats can vary a great deal.  Library Faculty will research these options and let you know what is available.

Sometimes, we find that the Library already owns a print or eBook copy of your required text.   Check by searching the title in Discovery Search (main search box) or Publication Finder on the Library's homepage. 

It may also be helpful to see required texts from other courses in your subject area that are already in the Library's collection.  You may decide to use one of these books instead of your current required text.

Course Reserves allow you to make a single print copy of a required text available to your entire class. 

You may place a book from the Library's collection or your own personal copy of a book on Reserve for the semester.  Books are returned to you or to the Library's circulating collection when the semester ends.

You set the time parameters for borrowing the book: 3 hours, 1 day, 3 days or 7 days.  You also determine how the book will be used when it is borrowed.  Do you wish to require that the book be used in the Library or if it can be taken out of the building?

Fill out a Course Reserves Request form for each individual course to set these parameters:

Please see the Course Reserves for Faculty Members page (link below) for more information.  Contact Denise DeRosa, Reserves Assistant, at dederosa@widener.edu or 610-499-4071 with questions about Course Reserves.

We purchase eBooks from many vendors and publishers.  Publishers and eBook platforms use different access models and texts are not always available in all formats and access levels.  Library faculty can help you navigate these access models to find the best option for a given text.

Depending on the eBook platform, texts can be downloaded directly to computers, downloaded into an eBook reading platform (Adobe Digital Editions), and even printed in some cases.

Access Levels

     1 user

• one user at a time (whether reading online in the database or downloading to the eBook reading platform)
• we can manage access to eBooks in our system and limit them to three hours per user, etc. (similar to putting print books on Reserve in the Library)

     3 user

• three users may access the eBook simultaneously (reading online or downloading to the eBook reading platform)

     Concurrent User

• unlimited access with a set number of uses (usually 365) in a given year
• the limit on the number of uses is reset to zero on the purchase anniversary date

     Unlimited User

• no restrictions to access

Wolfgram Library subscribes to many different eBook collections and we have tutorials to assist users: