WHAT IS THE OPEN LITERATURES PROJECT?
This is a grant-funded site participating in the larger OER (open educational resource) movement going on in academia. CUNY’s OER grants allow faculty to build teaching resources that are shareable–only materials that are not restricted by copyright–in a community-centered approach to teaching. Faculty can share their lesson plans, syllabi, readings, and other materials with one another. This allows us to find out what works best and then make it available to everyone. The best part of using open educational resources may be that it allows faculty to offer zero-cost courses for students. We don’t need to ask our students to buy expensive anthologies or textbooks, and in making use of OER sites, libguides, and other resources with huge collections, we can do so without limiting our choices of readings.
Check out Kingsborough’s Libguide for more information on the OER movement!
HOW DO I ADD AN AUTHOR, TEXT, OR ASSIGNMENT TO THIS SITE?
If you’re ready to upload documents, go here. If you’d prefer to email resources, send them to cunyopenlit@gmail.com.
CAN I USE ANYTHING ON THIS SITE?
Yes! All the materials here are open resource. That means there are no copyright issues. Sometimes, this means that a link takes you to a commercial site that has a paywall, but only blocks users after a set of free readings. For example, The New Yorker allows users to read four free articles a month before requiring a paid subscription.
WHY AREN’T THERE MORE CONTEMPORARY NOVELS HERE?
Because this is an OER site, it includes only works that are available without copyright concerns. In order to make a living, and to stick to the copyright rules of the presses that publish their books, most living authors limit the amount of free work readers can access. Copyright usually doesn’t end until seventy years after the death of the author. That’s why so many novels available for OER sites like this one are from the early twentieth century and earlier.
