Greetings! I’m a librarian at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After years of “learning experiences” around supporting open textbook development, I’m now seeing real strides forward in textbook creation on our campus thanks to Steel Wagstaff @swagstaff and now Amanda Larson @larson26 . Their activities leverage Pressbooks, H5P and the work of many I see already part of the Rebus Community.
I’ve also experienced the frustration of watching institution-based development and investment in open textbooks limp along while knowing there are many people around the world who might benefit directly from a particular textbook and would probably contribute to its development if there were a way for us to find each other and make it happen. (Shout out to David Ernst at UMN @dernst for his years of work toward collaborative solutions.) I couldn’t be more thrilled to see the development of this community and know that we’re positioned to make a significant impact.
I won’t have much technical or development skill to contribute, but will be looking for ways to support metadata and discovery work and am connected with people in the higher ed accessibility community if people need support and resources in that area.
Looking forward to the fruits of this work!