International Journal of Open Educational Resources Volume 2, Issue 1, Fall 2019/Winter 2020 | Page 111

Rural Librarians’ Journey to Understanding Students’ Role in OER Outreach
Adams State University is a
small, Hispanic Serving Institution
(HSI) located in rural Colorado, specifically
in the San Luis Valley, home
to some of the poorest counties in the
nation. It is because of the community’s
general poverty that bringing OER to
our campus has become a priority for
the library; more affordable textbook
options are something our students
desperately need. At the same time, it is
also one of the largest hurdles: we lack
the ability to offer the financial incentives
that can encourage faculty adoption
at larger institutions.
The school was built on the idea
that Adams State would be able “[t]o
become the university community of
choice for diverse, historically underserved
groups, and all who value quality
education and inclusivity” (Adams State
University, n.d.). That means we need
to address the specific needs of traditionally
underrepresented populations.
Research done by California’s Channel
Islands shows that it is minorities—specifically
Latinx—and first-generation
students who suffer the most when it
comes to high textbook costs (Hannans,
2018, slides 7 & 9). With those
costs increasing 88% between 2006 and
2016 (Bureau of Labor Statistics), the
situation is becoming critical. Another
issue that needs to be addressed in
order for Adams State to live up to its
mission statement is the varied impacts
that information privilege has upon our
students. Information privilege is defined
as the “ability to access information
others cannot” (Hare & Evanson,
2018, p. 726), due to socioeconomic
status, enrollment in or affiliation with
higher-education institutions, reliable
internet access (including access to
tech devices to view information), even
proximity to local public libraries, or a
combination of these and other factors.
“Opportunity and access for all”
is a universal institutional value (Adams
State University, n.d.), yet equitable
access to information is impossible
without a paradigm shift. Senack and
Donoghue (2016) made the compelling
point that, “[y]ears of dominance by
profit-maximizing publishers have created
a value system around false measures
of quality. Traditional textbooks
face no standardized test of efficacy, or
student success” (p. 12), and yet, OER
are expected to prove their comparative
value. Unless we work to overcome the
instinctive sense that traditional textbooks
have inherently better information
than Creative-Commons or openly
licensed material, the all will never have
the opportunity and access we strive to
provide.
OER can help combat the cultural
norms that support the ongoing
and worsening nature of information
privilege, the divide between the haves
and have-nots. Not only is openly licensed
academic information available
to students at no charge, whole courses
are available to the public, in support
of equitable education for all. The UN
declared fundamental education a basic
human right in Article 26 (United
Nations, 1948), but so many citizens
are prevented from continuing their
education due to cost that information
privilege remains prominent. In
most cases, OER offer perpetual access,
which combats both the economic cost
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