Open Access refers to resources that are freely available to the public. These materials are not the same as works in the public domain or works no longer under copyright protection. Open Access works are protected by copyright law. The creator maintains the copyright but chose to share them so that others can use the works without seeking permission or paying fees.
Directory of Open Access Journals - online directory that indexes and provides access to high quality, open access, peer-reviewed journals. There are currently over 14,000 journals indexed.
Directory of Open Access Books - online directory dedicated to increasing discoverability of Open Access books. Over 20,000 books are indexed.
Open Educational Resources
A subset of open access is Open Educational Resources which provide freely accessible curriculum content which educators can use or modify. Below are examples of sites to locate OER materials. Visit the Open Educational Resources guide for more information.
OER Commons is dedicated to curriculum improvement by creating a network where instructors can contribute their course materials or borrow, use, and adapt course materials from other instructors.
MIT OpenCourseWare makes the course materials used in MIT courses available on the Web. While the intent of the site is to provide free courses to all. They do allow their materials to be modified and remixed for non-commercial use as long as attribution is provided.
CC License Freedom Scale Chart by Foter and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license.