Brandel Library Receives $142K Grant to Fund Open Educational Resources

North Park's Brandel Library has received a grant from the Illinois State Library to fund four faculty-led projects that will result in new Open Educational Resources (OER) that will be available free of charge to North Park students with open access to the public through the internet.

The two-year, $142,000 grant, managed by the state library's OER initiative, will be used to create an introductory anatomy lab manual, a statistics workbook, a text about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and a fundamentals of financial marketing book. All the resources will be created by North Park faculty-Dr. Al Kamienski, Dr. Marie-Elene Roberge, Dr. Peter St. Jean, Dr. Kurt Sheu, and Dr. Chrystal Ho Pao.

"This has been a long-term focus for us at Brandel," said Evan Kuehn, assistant professor of information literacy and the head of teaching and learning services. "Open educational resources support the curriculum without the need for students to purchase expensive textbooks or other resources."

Professors will spend this year creating and editing their resources with the support of Brandel Library staff, with two of the books going into circulation in the fall of 2025, and the other two in fall 2026. Kuehn said he thinks North Park, as a Hispanic Serving Institution, is especially well-positioned to author the DEI text.

The grant is part of $3 million set aside by the state to help lower the cost of educating Illinois college students. Matthew Ostercamp, director of Brandel Library, says the process of getting the grant was competitive, with only about half of all applicants receiving a grant.

"The cost of textbooks has long been a barrier," Ostercamp said. "Doing projects like this removes that barrier and develops resources that are both rigorous and easily available."