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Affordable Course Materials

A guide for exploring course reserves, electronic resources, and OA/OER

Creative Commons

Creative Commons "is a nonprofit organization that enables the sharing and use of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools." Learn more about Creative Commons licenses and how to select the one that best meets your needs at Creative Commons licenses

Public Domain

Not all content is covered under copyright; a large number of works exist in the public domain. Public Domain works are available to remix, copy, distributr, and modify in the same way that the most openly licensed works are. All federal government materials and all works created prior to 1923 are public domain, but to figure out what other materials may fall into that category, you can consult the following:

The Cornell Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States web page provides a detailed table of copyright terms depending on date of publication.

If you are trying to ascertain whether a book that could be out of copyright has, in fact, had its copyright status renewed, the Stanford University Copyright Renewal Database allows users to search for information on copyright renewal requests for books published between 1923-1963.

Harvard Law School Library-Finding Public Domain and Creative Commons Materials

Turning a resource into an Open Educational Resource

How to attribute creative commons licensed content

Creative Commons License Compatibility Wizards

Open Access

Open Access is the free, immediate, online access to scholarly research and publications, and the right to reuse and redistribute these resources.

Open Access resources