International Journal of Open Educational Resources Volume 2, Issue 1, Fall 2019/Winter 2020 | Page 119

Rural Librarians’ Journey to Understanding Students’ Role in OER Outreach Figure 5. Offline access. important. This reinforces the fact that reliable Internet access is a concern for our students. Many traditional publishers restrict downloads or other offline access modes for protection of copyright and to ensure that students do not share or distribute the material illegally. While that is a valid concern, it also perpetuates information privilege. Thompson, Cross, Rigling, and Vickery (2017) posed the theory that “introductory courses assign materials that some students would prefer not to purchase,” in contrast to materials for higher-level courses that would “be valued as part of a personal or professional library” (p. 122). Our data supports that hypothesis: 38.4% of our respondents were Master’s students, with 30.2% classified as “upper classmen” (third, fourth, or fifth year undergraduates). This correlates quite closely with 51.5% of students saying that it was important or very important to be able to keep their texts (books, research articles) after the end of the class/end of term/ after graduation/after leaving the university. A total of 26.4% said that they had no feeling of importance, with less than one-quarter (22.1%) saying that it was unimportant or not very important. Most encouraging for our outreach was the feedback on our last question: How interested are you in learning more about affordable/accessible course material, which can support your education and financial needs, and the needs of others (peers, friends, family)? One student said not at all interested, three students said not very interested, eleven students (6.9%) said neither interested nor disinterested, 27% said interested, and 63.5% stated that they were very interested in learning more. We hope that this interest will translate into partnerships with librarians and student leadership groups that will learn about and spread the word regarding open course material options. 111