Librarians' hidden network fuels open education for millions

The Gathering

On July 21 and 22, 2026, the Open Education Network will hold its annual OEN Engage! event a free, virtual gathering where librarians, faculty, and institutional leaders come together to share what they've learned about making education more accessible. The meeting IDs and passcodes are posted publicly. The sessions are open. The knowledge, by design, is meant to be shared.

This is not accidental. The Open Education Network, which hosts the event, has spent more than a decade building what amounts to a syndication infrastructure for openly licensed textbooks. Their Open Textbook Library, a repository of freely usable and shareable books, received 7.5 million online visits in 2025 alone. Through membership, the network represents 1,793 institutions, consortia, and regional systems. Since 2012, they have facilitated more than 1,000 local faculty workshops designed to help educators understand and adopt open educational resources in their courses.

The story of how this happened is, at its heart, a story about what happens when librarians apply their systematic instincts to the challenge of open content distribution. It is a story of infrastructure, community, and the quiet persistence required to change how knowledge moves through higher education.

What Open Educational Resources Actually Are

Before understanding how the syndication network functions, it helps to be precise about what open educational resources are and what they are not. According to the Wikipedia entry on open educational resources, these are teaching, learning, and research materials that are intentionally created and licensed to be free for the end user to own, share, and in most cases, modify. The term describes publicly accessible materials and resources for any user to use, re-mix, improve, and redistribute under various creative commons licenses.

The 2019 UNESCO definition, widely cited in the field, describes open educational resources as teaching, learning, and research materials that make use of appropriate tools. These resources are designed to reduce accessibility barriers by implementing best practices in teaching and to be adapted for local unique contexts. Enabling these rights in practice may require the availability of source files the editable formats from which final resources are derived a distinction that leads by extension to the related concept of open source educational resources.

The development and promotion of open educational resources is often motivated by a desire to provide an alternative or enhanced educational paradigm. But the existence of openly licensed materials does not automatically mean those materials reach the educators and students who need them. That gap between availability and adoption is where the syndication work begins.

The Librarian's Instinct for Systematic Distribution

University librarians have long understood that collection development is not merely about acquiring materials. It is about building systems that connect the right resources to the right users at the right time. When open educational resources began emerging as a significant category in the early 2000s, librarians recognized both the opportunity and the challenge: here were freely available materials that could dramatically reduce textbook costs for students, but they existed in a fragmented landscape with no clear pathways for discovery or adoption.

The Open Education Network grew, in part, from this recognition. more than treating open educational resources as a one-time acquisition problem, the network approached them as an ongoing practice requiring sustained infrastructure. Their Guiding Principles page emphasizes community, equity, and sustainability. Knowledge, they write, is meant to be shared affordable, equitable, sustainable. Together, they are transforming higher education.

This language matters. It reflects an understanding that syndication is not a technical problem alone. It is a social and institutional problem that requires building trust, providing support, and creating connections across institutions that might otherwise operate in isolation.

The Monthly Roundup as Syndication Model

One of the most practical expressions of OER syndication can be found in the monthly roundup posts published by the City Tech Library OER Team. Their "New and Noteworthy" series, published on the OpenLab platform at City Tech, represents a systematic approach to resource curation that other institutions have begun to notice.

According to the team's description, New and Noteworthy is the City Tech Library OER Team's monthly roundup of notable open educational resources. The goal is to include at least one open resource relevant to each school at City Tech in every post. At the end of each month, these resources are compiled and distributed by the library liaison for each department.

This is syndication in its practical form: not just making resources available, but actively curating, contextualizing, and distributing them to specific audiences within specific institutional contexts. The team invites colleagues to contact them if they know of new or particularly interesting OER to share, creating a feedback loop that keeps the resource stream current and relevant.

The resources themselves span a remarkable range. A recent post highlighted "Redesigning Lives: Learning How Space Impacts Residents in Affordable Supportive Housing Initiatives" by Bethany Osborne and Shannon Pirie from Sheridan College, exploring how design intersects with social determinants of health. Another featured "Digital Resilience of ePortfolios During and Beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic: Lessons for the Future," edited by Mpho-Entle Puleng Modise and Norman Vaughan from Mount Royal University Library, examining how ePortfolios sustained educational activities during and after the pandemic. A third pointed to "Culturally Responsive Computing: An Introduction into Computer Science, Security, and Technology" by Devan J. Walton, part of the ROTEL (Remixing Open Textbooks with an Equity Lens) Project, which includes a newly added AI-Powered Adaptation Tool to help educators customize content for their specific teaching contexts.

Each resource is described with enough context to help an instructor understand its potential application. Each is licensed under Creative Commons terms that permit adaptation. Each is connected to a specific disciplinary context. This is not a passive repository. It is an actively syndicated feed.

The Faculty-Librarian Collaboration

Building a syndication network requires more than technical infrastructure. It requires people within institutions who understand both the content and the culture of teaching. Research from the University of Central Missouri, presented at the ALISE Annual Conference, explores how this faculty-librarian collaboration actually works in practice.

The paper, titled "Redesigning for Open Educational Practices: A Faculty-Librarian Collaboration," was authored by Jenna Kammer, an associate professor and program coordinator in the Library Science and Information Services program; Sara Evans, the Education Liaison Librarian who also teaches undergraduate courses in information literacy; and Janette Klein, the University Librarian who serves as an adjunct in the library science program.

Open educational practices, the authors note, are rarely explored in LIS education, despite alignment with many core values in library science. Recent scholarship on LIS pedagogy speaks to the merits of open educational practices, which can include open and equitable access, real-world learning experiences, and principles of social justice. However, there is little discussion about what this looks like in practice and within the LIS curriculum.

The thought piece examines the practical aspect of using open educational practices in the LIS graduate classroom and describes the collaborative reflections of an LIS faculty member, librarian, and university librarian preparing to implement open educational practices at a regional comprehensive university. Their finding: open educational practices are a good fit for the library science curriculum, but important support considerations need to be secured before implementation, such as access to participatory technology, training on intellectual property, and adequate staffing.

In addition, the dynamic nature of open educational practices addresses some of the challenges associated with the current landscape of online learning in higher education, including delivering more engaging pedagogy, increasing student digital literacy, and student involvement in the scholarly communication process.

This research matters for syndication because it identifies the human infrastructure required to make open educational resources actually work in classrooms. The materials exist. The licensing permits sharing. But without faculty who understand how to integrate them and librarians who can support that integration, the syndication network remains incomplete.

The Workshop as Adoption Mechanism

The Open Education Network has facilitated more than 1,000 local faculty workshops since 2012. This number is significant. It suggests that adoption of open educational resources is not automatic, even when the resources are freely available and high quality. Faculty need support, training, and community to feel confident moving away from traditional commercial textbooks.

Testimonials from OEN members illustrate this dynamic. Kelly Smith from Eastern Kentucky University said, "I wish I'd known about OEN membership when we launched our publishing program! The toolkits, resources, and community connections have been game-changers for our efficiency and ongoing success." Micah Gjeltema from the University of Minnesota noted that "OEN certification programs and committees have afforded excellent opportunities to develop and create!" Melissa Williams from Minnesota State Colleges and Universities expressed gratitude: "Very grateful to have the OEN in my corner. I've learned so much and met so many wonderful colleagues. Pretty great to fill my brain and my heart at the same time."

These testimonials reveal something important about the syndication network: it is not merely a technical distribution system. It is a professional community that provides emotional support, practical resources, and ongoing learning opportunities. The network makes adoption feel possible for faculty who might otherwise feel isolated in their interest in open educational resources.

What This Means for WebDiffusion Readers

For readers researching content distribution and syndication, the OER movement offers a instructive case study in what happens when a community applies systematic distribution thinking to openly licensed content. The Open Education Network has built something that most content syndication efforts aspire to: a sustainable flow of high-quality materials that reaches millions of users through a distributed network of institutions.

The key insight is that syndication at scale requires more than a central repository. It requires local champions librarians and faculty who curate, contextualize, and advocate for the resources within their specific institutional contexts. It requires ongoing support structures, including workshops, certification programs, and community events, that help practitioners stay current and connected. And it requires a commitment to open licensing that permits the adaptation and redistribution that makes syndication meaningful.

The 7.5 million visits to the Open Textbook Library in 2025 did not happen by accident. They are the result of years of systematic infrastructure building, community cultivation, and persistent advocacy for a different model of educational content distribution.

The Infrastructure of Trust

When the Open Education Network describes its guiding principles, the language emphasizes community, equity, and sustainability. These are not merely aspirational terms. They describe the operational requirements for a syndication network that depends on voluntary participation from institutions, faculty, and students.

Trust is the currency of open networks. Faculty need to trust that the openly licensed materials they adopt will remain available and of high quality. Students need to trust that the materials will be accessible and well-designed. Institutions need to trust that the network will continue to provide support and resources over time. Building that trust requires consistent behavior over years, not months.

The OEN Engage! events, held annually, serve as both practical convenings and symbolic demonstrations of the network's commitment to its members. The July 2026 event will include sessions on blind spots in the path ahead, sneak peeks at new certificate programs, introductions for newcomers, and practical workshops on topics like launching data dashboards. This programming reflects an understanding that syndication networks need ongoing maintenance, not just initial setup.

Looking Forward

The open educational resource movement continues to evolve. New tools, such as the AI-Powered Adaptation Tool included in the ROTEL Project's Culturally Responsive Computing textbook, suggest ways that open resources might become more adaptable to local contexts. Research into open educational practices continues to explore how the dynamic nature of openly licensed materials can address challenges in online learning.

For the Open Education Network and similar organizations, the challenge is sustaining momentum while expanding reach. The 1,793 institutions currently represented through membership represent significant scale, but higher education contains thousands of institutions with varying levels of awareness about open educational resources. The syndication network that has emerged over the past decade provides a model, but the work of extending that model to new contexts continues.

What the movement has demonstrated, however, is that systematic approaches to open content distribution can work. The 7.5 million visits to the Open Textbook Library in 2025 represent real students and educators finding freely available materials that might otherwise have been inaccessible. The faculty workshops, community events, and certification programs represent real professionals building the skills and connections needed to sustain open educational practices over time.

The architecture is quiet. The impact is not.

Where to Read Further

Readers interested in exploring the Open Education Network's work directly can visit their site to learn about membership, certificate programs, and upcoming community events. The Open Textbook Library, with its collection of openly licensed books, is available for free use and redistribution. Faculty and librarians interested in starting OER initiatives at their own institutions can find toolkits, resources, and community connections through the network.

For research on faculty-librarian collaboration in open educational practices, the ALISE Annual Conference proceedings include a detailed examination of what implementation looks like in practice. The paper by Jenna Kammer, Sara Evans, and Janette Klein from the University of Central Missouri offers specific insights into the support considerations required for sustainable adoption.

The City Tech Library OER Team's New and Noteworthy monthly roundup provides a practical model for systematic resource curation and distribution that other institutions can adapt to their own contexts. Each post demonstrates how to contextualize open resources for specific disciplinary audiences.

For foundational context on what open educational resources are and how they have evolved, the Wikipedia entry on open educational resources offers a comprehensive overview of definitions, history, and current landscape. The 2019 UNESCO definition referenced throughout the field provides shared language for understanding the characteristics that distinguish open educational resources from traditional copyrighted materials.