January 19, 2017
Funds available for both new adopters of open/alt textbooks and those who already use them
Submitted by Sarah McGreer Hoyt
K-State Libraries announce a call for proposals for the K-State Open/Alternative Textbook Fund. Proposals must be received by 5 p.m. Friday, Feb. 3. Information sessions will be 8:30-9:30 a.m. and 3:30-4:30 p.m. Jan. 24 in 407 Hale Library.
In addition to the Open/Alt Textbook Fund, money is available through the Open/Alt Textbook Fee.
The Open/Alt Textbook Fund is for new projects: Awards of up to $5,000 will be given to K-State faculty who develop or adopt an open or alternative textbook for their course.
These applicants do not necessarily have to create an entire open access textbook themselves. Successful proposals may also include the use of a range of resources across any media or the adoption or customization of an existing open access textbook. Proposal requirements, submission and selection criteria and examples of open texts already in use are available at the K-State Libraries website.
The second type of funding is the Open/Alternative Textbook Fee. Each student who enrolls in approved classes that use open/alt textbooks pay this $10 fee. The resulting funds are divided between the supporting department, 89 percent, and the Open/Alternative Textbook Initiative, 9 percent, leaving 2 percent for bad debit. Per university policy, departmental funds may be used as deemed by the department.
Faculty who apply to the Open/Alternative Textbook Fund by the Feb. 3 deadline as described above will automatically be considered for receipt of the fee.
However, faculty members who are already using an open or alternative resource are also invited to apply to have the Open/Alternative Textbook Fee applied to their course for the fall semester. Apply online by Feb. 3.
Faculty who are already receiving the Open/Alternative Textbook Fee for spring courses do not have to reapply in order to receive it if they're teaching the same course in the fall.
Both funding for new projects and recipients of the fee will be announced by approximately Feb. 16. For questions about the initiative, assistance with locating or editing your resource, or to discuss approaches applicants can use in their proposal please contact Brian Lindshield, associate professor of human nutrition; Andy Bennett, department head and professor of mathematics; or the Center for the Advancement of Digital Scholarship, K-State Libraries.