Stacy Zemke has been named the Open Educational Resources (OER) Coordinator for the University of Oklahoma Libraries. As the OER Coordinator, Zemke will assist in the creation, promotion and utilization of open educational resources and open access content in support of OU’s goal to reduce textbook costs through the development of open access educational resources for both students and faculty.

The initiative of OER is to provide students with a lower-cost alternative compared to textbooks. Students can use OERs to enhance their learning in the classrooms. OERs will also allow faculty to design specific resources for students to use when away from class, to enhance the traditional lecture experience, and provide materials to students any time of the day.

Prior to joining the University Libraries, Zemke was a term instructor for the School of Library and Information Studies and an OU IT faculty liaison and training coordinator. She has been working with OERs since 2004 as an instructor and as an information systems designer. Zemke has also worked with publishers and software developers to create electronic libraries for educational resources, as well as building collections of OERs and creating new shared educational resources

“We are so pleased to welcome Stacy Zemke as our Open Educational Resources Coordinator,” said Karen Rupp-Serrano, director of collection management and scholarly communication. “Stacy has significant consulting experience with these resources. The combination of skills and experience she brings to the position will help the University of Oklahoma find and create resources that will be of use in OU classrooms and beyond.”

Zemke’s experience is a great asset to the University’s initiative for affordable learning solutions for its students and faculty.