A collaborative bid from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Library and Liverpool University Press has won funding from JISC to explore ‘the institution as e-textbook publisher’.
The project seeks to address the question: will the institution as e-textbook creator help students by providing a more affordable higher education, and promote a better, more sustainable information environment for libraries, students and faculty?
Two e-textbooks, Essentials for Financial Management to be authored by the Management School’s Jason Laws and used on the largest taught course in the University, and Using Primary Sources: A Guide for Students under the General Editorship of Jonathan Hogg and to be used across the School of History, will be developed over the next 12 months in a unique collaboration involving the Faculty, Library, Press and with guidance from the Centre for Lifelong Learning, the Computer Services Department and the Guild.
Professor Fiona Beveridge, Acting Executive Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Humanities and Social Sciences said, ‘The development of these Open Access e-textbooks will significantly enhance the Liverpool student experience through the elimination of cost to students for course materials, and the opportunity to tailor those materials to exact pedagogical requirements. Their open availability should also see the e-textbooks, which will be published under the University of Liverpool imprimatur, widely used in other institutions.’
University Librarian, Phil Sykes, added, ‘Quite simply, this is a project that ticks all the boxes. It’s visionary, innovative and shows the way forward into the still uncharted territory of e-textbook provision. It’s practical, in that it addresses the pressing problem of how we ensure that students have access to core textbooks without imposing an undue financial burden upon them. And it demonstrates the way the Library and the University Press at Liverpool are working together to change the landscape of information provision for the better.’