Below are five of the best tools currently available for finding Open Access and Open Educational Resources.
Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (BASE)
“BASE is one of the world’s most voluminous search engines especially for academic web resources. BASE provides more than 120 million documents from more than 6,000 sources. You can access the full texts of about 60% of the indexed documents for free (Open Access). BASE is operated by Bielefeld University Library.”
Creative Commmons CC Search
Please note that search.creativecommons.org is not a search engine, but rather offers convenient access to search services provided by other independent organizations. CC has no control over the results that are returned. Do not assume that the results displayed in this search portal are under a CC license. You should always verify that the work is actually under a CC license by following the link.
Mason OER Metafinder
“The Mason OER Metafinder searches seventeen targets in real-time, instantly returning the top several hundred or so most relevant hits from each site. Because it is a real-time search, it can take a bit longer than searchers of pre-indexed, curated content; however, as compensation the results returned are absolutely up-to-the-minute for each search target.”
OER Commons Search
“From a single point of access in OER Commons, you can search, browse, and evaluate resources in OER Commons’ growing collection of over 50,000 high-quality OER. ”
Openly Available Sources Integrated Search (OASIS)
“Openly Available Sources Integrated Search (OASIS) is a search tool that aims to make the discovery of open content easier. OASIS currently searches open content from 61 different sources and contains 160,727 records.” (as of 9-18-18)
Faculty Select (EBSCO)
“With this option, EBSCO is offering a simplified version of Faculty Select that includes access to OER material as well as the option to discover more than 225,000 DRM-free EBSCO eBooks™ in one place, available at no charge for faculty to use through June 30, 2020.”
For a quick review of what constitutes an Open resource and how to make use of them please review the following brief guides.
5Rs of Open Educational Resources (OER)
For further assistance regarding Open Access or Open Educational Resources please contact David Smith, Assistant Librarian for Reference and Circulation.
