Most discussions about university presses focus on presses as monograph publishers. This article examines university presses as textbook publishers, and argues that presses could potentially play an important role in supporting the proliferation of open textbooks. I begin by tracing the long history of university presses’ involvement in textbook publishing, and more recently, presses’ involvement in open textbook publishing. I describe the different types of presses that are interested in open textbook publishing, and then attempt to classify the open textbooks that are currently being published by university presses.

When academic librarians began to address the high cost of textbooks a decade ago, they typically created textbook affordability programs tailored to the needs of their own institutions. Acting independently allowed for fast implementation and progress, but the downside of going it alone is the potential lack of sustainability. While colleges and universities continue to develop local programs, the predominant trend more recently is the statewide open educational resources initiative. This article reports the findings of a survey of these state initiatives to learn more about their governance structures, as no one model has emerged. This information can benefit existing and future statewide initiatives to optimally structure their governance model for productivity, inclusiveness, and sustainability.

Temple Libraries’ Virtual Reality (VR) studios at Charles Library’s Duckworth Scholars Studio and Ginsburg Health Science Library’s Innovation Space host two empathy-based VR (EbVR) experiences that individuals can use by appointment and faculty members can integrate into their classes. EbVR may deepen students’ understanding of a topic and enhance their ability to empathize with those they will encounter in their professional life. One set of recent reviewers writes, “there is no single recipe for empathy development,” (Bertrand et al. 2018). Still, our experience hosting EbVR course collaborations suggests that, when supported by a structured curriculum, this may be an exciting new mode for engaging students by harnessing empathy and emotions for learning. This poster discusses the pedagogical potential of EbVR, presents details of Nursing and Social Work course collaborations, and links to more information on EbVR at Temple Libraries.